Geronimo Pratt

I’ve long suspected that Geronimo Pratt was wrongly convicted of murder, and the details outlined by James McCloskey (Commentary, Jan. 2) strengthen that ominous feeling. Even without the concealment of the FBI anti-Panther campaign against Pratt from the jury, it simply doesn’t make sense to me that somebody smart enough to be admitted to UCLA would commit such a crime as robbing an unarmed couple on a tennis court, and brag about murdering a helpless woman to a rival he’d kicked out of the organization.

Pratt should be retried, but unfortunately he is at the mercy of a district attorney who is up for reelection and whose every move is designed to appeal to the majority’s sometimes ill-informed wishes. Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti wants to erase the mistakes leading to the acquittal of O.J. Simpson from the minds of the voters, and he won’t be able to do that by freeing yet another black man.

DIANA STRAIN

San Diego

* Evidently the state does not want to reopen the Pratt case until another limit on lawsuits is passed: One to limit the amount a victim of malicious imprisonment is allowed to recover.

THOMAS E. LOCKE

Santa Monica