New Jersey Parole Board Files To Block Release Of Trooper Werner Foerster's Killer
TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) - New Jersey's parole board has filed in court to stop the release of a man convicted of killing a state trooper more than 40 years ago.
A two-member panel of the state parole board denied Sundiata Acoli's parole in 2011, but an appeals court reversed the ruling last month and ordered Acoli released.
Acoli, then known as Clark Edward Squire, was convicted of the 1973 slaying of Trooper Werner Foerster during a stop on the New Jersey Turnpike.
One of Squire's accomplices was Joanne Chesimard, who also was convicted but escaped to Cuba and has been living under the name Assata Shakur.
She was an active and prominent member of the Black Panther Party and later the BLA, which was described as one of the most violent militant organizations of 1970s, officials said. The BLA was responsible for killing more than a dozen police officers in the 1970s and '80s, said agent Aaron Ford of the FBI's Newark division.
In a court filing this week, the parole board asks for a delay of Acoli's release while the full board reconsiders the decision.
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