Elmer Pratt’s Bid for New Trial Denied : Ex-Black Panther Chief Still Claims He Was Framed for Murder

A federal magistrate Monday turned down a bid for a new trial by former Black Panther leader Elmer (Geronimo) Pratt, who has claimed for his 14 years in prison that he was framed by law enforcement officials in the 1968 shooting death of a teacher in Santa Monica.

U.S. Magistrate John R. Kronenberg ruled in a 41-page opinion issued in Los Angeles that there was “no evidence of a conspiracy” on the part of the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department to frame Pratt, who was convicted of the Dec. 18, 1968, murder-robbery of teacher Caroline Olsen, 27, as she played tennis with her husband. Kenneth Olsen, then 33, was wounded in the robbery, which netted $30, but survived.

Pratt has contended that as part of a conspiracy, the FBI and Los Angeles police suppressed evidence supporting his alibi that he was in Oakland at the time of the attack and that he was specifically targeted by the now discredited COINTELPRO program, a secret FBI effort to infiltrate, disrupt and discredit political groups in the 1960s and ‘70s.

Kronenberg, however, said police surveillance records showed that Pratt was not seen in Oakland until two days after Olsen’s killing, tending to prove “that he was in flight or in hiding” on the day of the murder.

The magistrate also noted that Pratt was not specifically mentioned in any COINTELPRO documents obtained by defense attorneys under the Freedom of Information Act.

Dismissing the conspiracy claim, Kronenberg wrote:

“On the one hand, the police were investigating the homicide. On the other hand, the FBI was attempting to keep track of (Pratt) in connection with his alleged subversive activities. There is no showing of any coordination of these separate investigations in any way material to the issues before (me).”

Pratt, who considers himself a political prisoner, has been seeking a new trial since his conviction in 1972. He is serving a life sentence and has been denied parole several times.

Defense lawyers, including San Francisco attorney Stuart Hanlon and former Republican Rep. Pete McCloskey, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in Los Angeles federal court, asking for a new trial after several appeals in state courts were rejected.

Hanlon was not surprised by the magistrate’s ruling on the petition.

“I’m still confident that Pratt is innocent,” the lawyer said, “but the (judicial) system is petrified by him and what he stands for and is unwilling to let him out under any circumstances.”

Angered by Delay

Hanlon said he was angered that Kronenberg waited about 10 months after oral arguments were heard in the case before ruling.

“It’s a vicious way to handle it,” he said. “Why wait so long if you aren’t going to do anything?”

Pratt was informed of the ruling at San Quentin Prison. Hanlon quoted his client as saying:

“I’ve never expected justice from the criminal justice system.”

A new trial for Pratt also was sought on grounds that a key prosecution witness in the 1972 trial was an FBI informant who, the defense alleged, perjured himself on the witness stand.

Defense Argument

Pratt’s attorneys had argued that the trial’s participants, including the jury, never knew of the ties the key witness, Julio Butler, had with the FBI.

Butler’s admission that he had met with the FBI 33 times before Pratt’s trial did not necessarily make him an informant for the agency, Kronenberg ruled.

“The evidence indicates that he was a contact and nothing more,” the magistrate wrote in the ruling. “The definition of an ‘informant’ is not precise. The California Court of Appeal found that he was not.”

Hanlon said Kronenberg’s decision will be appealed.