1960s Activist Freed After 27 Years

Amid cries of “Free at last!” former Black Panther Geronimo Pratt was released on bail Tuesday after 27 years behind bars on murder charges he says were trumped up by the FBI during the turbulent ‘60s.

The scene outside the Orange County Jail erupted less than two hours after Superior Court Judge Everett Dickey, who last month overturned Pratt’s conviction, ordered him freed to await a decision on whether he will be retried.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your fair and courageous ruling,” the 49-year-old Pratt said in a husky voice as he stood before Dickey.

The courtroom was filled with many veterans of the activist 1960s who had come to see the judge deal with one of the last pieces of unfinished business from the black power movement.

Prosecutors are seeking to get the conviction reinstated. Failing that, they could retry Pratt, though they haven’t said whether they will.

Pratt was arrested in 1970 and charged with murdering schoolteacher Caroline Olsen in a robbery on a Santa Monica tennis court in 1968. He was convicted in 1972 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Pratt insisted he was in Oakland at the time of the killing. He maintains he was railroaded for the killing as FBI and police sought to undermine the Black Panther movement in California.