(NEW YORK) — Assata Shakur, a Black Liberation Army member who was convicted in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper, has died in Cuba, where she had to fled to after escaping from prison, Cuban officials said Friday. She was 78.
Her conviction for the murder of Trooper Werner Foerster, and subsequent escape garnered her a permanent spot on the New Jersey State Police’s Most Wanted List. The state long sought to extradite Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard, from Cuba, without success.
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said she died in Havana of health complications and advanced age.
The civil rights activist and convicted murderer had continued to be a top priority for law enforcement officials over four decades after she broke out of a Clifton, New Jersey, prison.
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