Ex-Black Panther convicted of murdering N.J. trooper wins freedom after 49 years
An 85-year-old convicted murderer who had been repeatedly denied parole was ordered released on Tuesday by a divided New Jersey Supreme Court, 49 years after he was involved in the fatal shooting of a state trooper.
Sundiata Acoli, a former Black Panther who was part of the ultranationalist Black Liberation Army, was convicted of murdering New Jersey State Police officer Werner Foerster in an altercation that began with a traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike.
He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years and became eligible for release in 1993 because of good behavior. He appeared before the parole board four times and was denied each time.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, and the law enforcement community staunchly opposed granting Acoli his freedom, and the parole board has repeatedly done the same, pointing to inconsistencies in his account of the murder and the fact that he has said he blacked out and does not recall shooting Foerster.
But the New Jersey high court disagreed, saying the parole board’s job is not to determine who Acoli was at the time of the murder but rather who he has become. The 3-to-2 ruling cited the Parole Act of 1979, which says inmates shall be released when they are eligible, unless there is a preponderance of the evidence showing a substantial likelihood they will commit another crime.
The court said the parole board seemed to ignore Acoli’s renunciation of violence, two decades of being infraction-free, completion of multiple vocational programs and counseling sessions and his advanced age. “It is difficult to imagine what else might have persuaded the Board that Acoli did not present a substantial likelihood to reoffend,” the majority wrote.
Murphy said in a statement that he was “deeply disappointed” by the ruling, noting that a state law enacted in 1996 requires that anyone convicted of murdering an on-duty police officer is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.