[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 392 Introduced in House (IH)]
103d CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 392
Expressing the sense of the House that the Governor of the State of
California, or the California Board of Prison Terms, or both, should
take actions within their power to bring about the reconsideration of
the 1972 conviction and/or the immediate release from prison of Elmer
``Geronimo'' Pratt, and that the Judiciary Committee should inquire
into the information known to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
which was not released to the California Attorney General and courts in
1980.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 17, 1994
Mr. Dellums submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House that the Governor of the State of
California, or the California Board of Prison Terms, or both, should
take actions within their power to bring about the reconsideration of
the 1972 conviction and/or the immediate release from prison of Elmer
``Geronimo'' Pratt, and that the Judiciary Committee should inquire
into the information known to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
which was not released to the California Attorney General and courts in
1980.
Whereas Elmer ``Geronimo'' Pratt, a former Black Panther Party leader in
Southern California, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in
1972 for murder, assault, and robbery;
Whereas Elmer ``Geronimo'' Pratt maintains he did not commit these crimes and
asserts his innocence would be proven through the release of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation surveillance records;
Whereas the Federal Bureau of Investigation engaged in illegal and
unconstitutional conduct in an effort to neutralize and destroy the
Black Panther Party and its leadership, including Elmer ``Geronimo''
Pratt;
Wheras the Federal Bureau of Investigation actively sought to bring about the
arrest and conviction of Elmer ``Geronimo'' Pratt and other Black
Panther Party leaders through its counterintelligence program (commonly
referred to as ``COINTELPRO''), in order to achieve its purpose of
disrupting the Black Panther Party, whether or not facts existed to
substantiate the charges made;
Whereas the Federal Bureau of Investigation withheld evidence from the
prosecutor, police, Elmer ``Geronimo'' Pratt, his attorneys and the jury
at this trial, and knowingly allowed their informant Julius Butler,
informant numbered 170-1259 to deny that he was an informant or had ever
worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Pratt's trial, and by
so doing effectively denied him his fundamental constitutional right to
a fair trial, in violation of the guarantees of due process and the
equal protection of the laws;
Whereas Federal Bureau of Investigation wrongdoing in the case of Elmer
``Geronimo'' Pratt has been established through exhaustive examination
of thousands of pages of official Federal Bureau of Investigation
documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and subsequently
corroborated by the sworn testimony of a retired Federal Bureau of
Investigation special agent who has personal knowledge of that
wrongdoing;
Whereas Amnesty International, the London based human rights organization, after
undertaking a thorough review of the evidence in the case of Elmer
``Geronimo'' Pratt, concluded that ``COINTELPRO'' involved abuses of the
criminal justice system and that ``there were signs of misconduct by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation in the handling of (Pratt's) case'';
Whereas Elmer ``Geronimo'' Pratt has spent over eighteen years in prison
pursuant to his arrest and conviction for a State offense accomplished
without disclosure to the prosecutor, court, jury and Pratt and his
counsel of the fact that he was targeted by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's ``COINTELPRO'' program, and that the primary witness
against him was a ``COINTELPRO'' informant for the Federal Bureau of
Investigation; and
Whereas it is appropriate to rectify the gross injustice before doing so would
be reduced to a meaningless posthumous gesture: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House that--
(1) Elmer ``Geronimo'' Pratt, convicted of murder, assault,
and robbery charges in a California State court in 1972, did
not receive a fair trial because of secret Federal Bureau of
Investigation efforts to discredit Elmer ``Geronimo'' Pratt, by
the dissemination of false information about him and Federal
Bureau of Investigation concealment of the informant status of
the primary witness against him;
(2) comprehensive congressional inquiries are warranted in
order to ascertain the full extent of information which was
withheld from the California court's and prosecuting
authorities in 1980; and
(3) the Governor of the State of California, or the
California Board of Prison Terms, or both, should take actions
within their power to bring about the reconsideration of the
1972 conviction and/or the immediate release from prison of
Elmer ``Geronimo'' Pratt, and that the Judiciary Committee
should inquire into the information known to the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, which was not released to the California
Attorney General and courts in 1980.
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