Sundiata Acoli
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Sundiata Acoli (b. 1939, original name Clark Edward Squire) is an African-American prisoner and formerly a member of the Black Liberation Army currently imprisoned in White Deer, Pennsylvania. Acoli was convicted in May 2, 1973, along with the now-escaped Assata Shakur, of inciting a gun battle with New Jersey State Police during a routine traffic stop. In the battle, State Trooper Werner Foerster and a third man, Zayd Malik Shakur, who was traveling with Acoli and Assata, were killed. The trooper who made the stop, James Harper, and Assata were injured.
Acoli was sentenced to life in prison plus thirty years for the assisted murder of State Trooper Foerster and Zayd Malik Shakur.
The actual initiation of the gun battle is disputed, with police claiming that the Sundiata Acoli and company fired first, while Acoli's supporters maintain that the stop was nothing more than a case of "DWB" (Driving While Black) and that the police made racially divisive comments that led to aggravated conflict.
Some speculate that due process was not granted and that the two were beaten while being held. It has also become known that a number of the charges brought against them (which range from kidnapping to bank robbery) were generated solely by the FBI's COINTELPRO program.
Assata Shakur escaped her maximum-security prison in 1979 and lived underground until seeking political asylum in Cuba, where she remains today.
Sundiata Acoli was first eligible for parole in 1991 and was denied release. He appeared before the parole board again in 2004 and was denied release a second time. He is eligible for parole again in 10 years.
His closest supporters argue that Acoli is a political prisoner. Many claim that he is innocent but fail to explain how officer Foerster was shot twice in the head with his own service weapon.
Acoli is a mathematician and has written many articles from prison on the "New Afrikan Struggle."
