After over 30 years behind bars, the Black liberation elder and the stepfather of Tupac Shakur, Mutulu Shakur, has been granted a compassionate release from prison.
According to The Intercept, Shakur will be released, so he doesn’t die in prison. The U.S Parole Commission confirmed the release is for Shakur to spend his final days outside of prison. He is expected to die of bone marrow cancer.
Shakur’s body and mind are said to have deteriorated, and in May, he was stated to have less than six months to live. After an October hearing, the commission, which denied Shakur’s release 10 times prior, granted his release. The commission agreed with the long belief that Shakur is a dying man with no risk to society and has a clean institutional record while also not likely to commit any other offense.
“We are relieved that the Parole Commission now recognizes what has long been true — that Dr. Shakur’s release poses no risk whatsoever,” said one of Shakur’s attorneys, Brad Thomson of the People’s Law Office. “It is tragic that it took until he was on the verge of death for that truth to finally be realized.”
“We now find your medical condition renders you so infirm of mind and body that you are no longer physically capable of committing any Federal, State or local crime,” the commission said in granting the release.
Shakur was convicted of conspiracy charges with additional Black liberationists and leftist allies in the involvement of a 1981 Bruck’s truck robbery. He was also convicted for aiding in the escape of Assata Shakur.
You can read the full report from The Intercept here.
