Los Angeles City Council OKs $2.75 Mil. Settlement For Geronimo Pratt

Jet, August 7, 2000

The Los Angeles City Council recently approved spending $2.75 million to settle the city's portion of the wrongful imprisonment lawsuit filed by former Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt.

The controversial settlement, reached on an 8-6 split, divided the council. Some felt Pratt deserved far more for the 27 years he spent in jail for a 1960s murder he said he didn't commit. Others felt the award was excessive.

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., who is Pratt's attorney, said, "This is a measure of justice for a true American hero who was framed by his government." He told the L.A. Times that he would have liked to have gotten more, but didn't want to further prolong the lengthy story. "After 27 years, it's time," he said.

Pratt, who is now 53 years old and living in Louisiana, was convicted in 1972 of the killing of Caroline Olsen and wounding her husband Kenneth. That conviction was overturned, however, in 1997, when a judge ruled that prosecutors in the case concealed evidence that would have led to his acquittal.