IV

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
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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 ob-
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tained 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

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House that—

2 (1) Elmer ‘‘Geronimo’’ Pratt, convicted of mur3 der, assault, and robbery charges in a California

4 State court in 1972, did not receive a fair trial be5 cause of secret Federal Bureau of Investigation ef6 forts to discredit Elmer ‘‘Geronimo’’ Pratt, by the

7 dissemination of false information about him and
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1 Federal Bureau of Investigation concealment of the

2 informant status of the primary witness against him;

3 (2) comprehensive congressional inquiries are

4 warranted in order to ascertain the full extent of in5 formation which was withheld from the California

6 court’s and prosecuting authorities in 1980; and

7 (3) the Governor of the State of California, or

8 the California Board of Prison Terms, or both,

9 should take actions within their power to bring

10 about the reconsideration of the 1972 conviction

11 and/or the immediate release from prison of Elmer

12 ‘‘Geronimo’’ Pratt, and that the Judiciary Commit13 tee should inquire into the information known to the

14 Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was not re15 leased to the California Attorney General and courts

16 in 1980.

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