Judge OKs new trial for Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt

Jet, June 23, 1997

Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, the former Black Panther Party member who has spent the last 25 years in jail for a murder near Los Angeles that he has always claimed he did not commit, will finally receive a new trial.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Everett Dickey recently ruled that evidence that might have helped Pratt in 1972 was suppressed by the L.A. District Attorney's office. The D.A.'s office used the testimony of a government informant who infiltrated the Black Panther Party. Dickey's ruling pointed out that prosecutors suppressed reports about the informant that could have swayed jurors in Pratt's favor.

Pratt, 49, was convicted of the 1968 murder of Caroline Olsen, a school teacher in the L.A. suburb of Santa Monica. He has steadfastly maintained that he was in Oakland at the time of the murder. He was the Los Angeles leader of the Oakland-based Black Panthers.

The ruling by Dickey caps a 25-year battle waged by Pratt and Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., who served as his attorney at the original trial.

Cochran has always stated publicly that the Pratt case was more important to him than the O.J. Simpson trial and that he wouldn't retire until he saw Pratt receive justice. It's the most satisfying victory in my career," he told Jet. "I've been fighting this for 25 years. I saw Mr. Pratt, and he's not bitter," Attorney Cochran added.

Julius Butler, a Panther member who had been recruited by law enforcement, testified during the 1972 trial that Pratt confessed to him that he'd robbed and killed Olsen. Butler's conviction of several felonies and role as an informant was never disclosed.