Ex-Black Panther Leader’s Bid for Bail Denied
Lawyers for Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt lost a longshot bid Wednesday to have the former Black Panther Party leader freed on bail pending a hearing on new evidence they say points to Pratt’s innocence.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael A. Cowell said bail for Pratt would be inappropriate, whatever the outcome of any future court proceedings.
“Mr. Pratt is not eligible for bail,” Cowell said. “As matters now stand, he is convicted of the crime of murder.”
Pratt, who was not present for the hearing, has contended for more than 25 years that he is innocent of shooting a schoolteacher to death and critically wounding her husband during a 1968 robbery on a Santa Monica tennis court in which two bandits netted $18.
In 1972, a jury convicted Pratt of murder. Pratt maintains that he was in Oakland when the murder occurred, and was framed by the FBI and Los Angeles Police Department as part of a program to destabilize organizations in the black community.
Cowell said Wednesday that a hearing on new evidence in Pratt’s case could begin as early as next month.
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