---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 00:41:42 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Former Black Panther jailed for life
Former Black Panther jailed for life
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1871000/1871935.stm
Al-Amin (aka H Rap Brown) speaking in the 1960s
Thursday, 14 March, 2002
A jury in Atlanta has sentenced a former US Black Panther leader to life
imprisonment without parole for the murder of a sheriff's deputy.
On Saturday, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin - formerly known as H Rap Brown - was
convicted by a jury of killing Deputy Ricky Kinchen and wounding Deputy
Aldranon English in the city two years ago.
But the jury appeared to heed calls for mercy and did not sentence Al-Amin
to death.
A former United Nations ambassador and mayor of Atlanta, Andrew Young, said
the accused had done good works as a civil rights and community activist.
"We must devote ourselves to giving life," he said. "Don't let violence or
hatred take any more from us than it already has."
Arrest that went wrong
Al-Amin, 58, showed no emotion as judge Stephanie Manis read out the
sentence in a packed courtroom.
Al-Amin argued he had been the victim of a conspiracy
The shooting had taken place when the officers were attempting to serve
Al-Amin with an arrest warrant.
The warrant was issued after Al-Amin failed to appear in court in January on
charges of receiving stolen property and impersonating a police officer.
Those charges stemmed from an incident in May 1999 in which Al-Amin was
allegedly stopped in a stolen car and showed a police badge.
When Al-Amin was arrested in White Hall, Alabama, a .223-calibre assault
rifle and handgun were found in woods nearby.
Past notoriety
In the 1960s, Al-Amin became known across the US as the leader of the
Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee, a civil rights group which
campaigned to end racial discrimination in the southern states.
He later served as justice spokesman in the Black Panther movement.
Over time Al-Amin became more and more militant. He once exhorted black
Americans to arm themselves, saying, "Violence is as American as cherry
pie."
In 1967, he was charged with inciting a riot in Cambridge, Maryland, where
he had told supporters: "It's time for Cambridge to explode, baby. Black
folks built America, and if America don't come around, we're going to burn
America down."
In the riot that followed, Al-Amin and a police officer were injured by
gunfire, and a school and small area of the city were destroyed by fire.
Al-Amin moved to Atlanta in 1976 after converting to Islam while serving
five years in prison for his role in a robbery that ended in a shootout.
In 1995, he was accused of aggravated assault after a man claimed he was
shot by Al-Amin. The man later recanted, saying he was pressured by
authorities to identify Al-Amin as the shooter.
Al-Amin then became the spiritual leader of a mosque in the Atlanta and ran
a small grocery shop.
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