[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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    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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