Ex-Panther Leader Pratt Denied Parole
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SAN QUENTIN — Elmer (Geronimo) Pratt, a former Black Panther leader serving a life sentence for murdering a woman at a Santa Monica tennis court, was denied parole today.
At a two-hour hearing, which the 36-year-old convict refused to attend, the Board of Prison Terms ruled that Pratt will get another hearing in two years, prison spokesman Lt. Fred Everly said.
Pratt, who has insisted on his innocence, was sentenced in 1972 to seven years to life in prison for the 1968 fatal shooting of Carolyn Olson, 27, and the wounding of her husband, Kenneth.
Pratt, a 21-year-old student at UCLA when he was arrested, said he was in Oakland at the time of the killing and was framed by the FBI in an operation designed to break up the black radical movement in the United States.
In unsuccessful arguments to overturn his conviction, Pratt alleged that government agents infiltrated his defense team and suppressed evidence.
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