New Jersey cop-killer Joanne Chesimard
Jul 17, 2015
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) led a bipartisan group of lawmakers in calling on President Obama to demand that Cuban officials extradite New Jersey cop-killer Joanne Chesimard and New York City terrorist William Morales as the United States announces the reopening of embassies in both countries. Chesimard and Morales are convicted felons who escaped to Cuba and were granted political asylum by the Castro regime. Cuban officials have publicly announced they will not negotiate any extradition as a condition for normalized relations between the United States and Cuba.
“It is imperative that your administration ensures that justice is served by making the extradition of Joanne Chesimard’s and William Morales’ a top priority,” said the group of lawmakers in the letter to President Obama. “In recent months Bernadette Meehan, a National Security Council spokeswoman said “the return from Cuba of fugitives from U.S. justice is an issue of long-standing concern to the United States that will be addressed in the broader context of normalizing relations.” However, there has been no evidence of progress in securing the return of these fugitives.”
Reps. Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02), Tom MacArthur (NJ-03), Leonard Lance (NJ-07), Bill Pascrell (NJ-09), and Peter King (NY-02) also signed Garrett’s letter.
Click here to read the entire letter to President Obama.
About Chesimard and Morales:
Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1977. In 1973, New Jersey State Troopers Werner Foerster and James Harper made a routine traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. When the troopers asked the vehicle’s driver to exit the car, one of the passengers, Joanne Chesimard, pulled out a gun and began shooting. During the ensuing firefight, Foerster was hit twice in the chest and Harper once in the shoulder. The injured Foerster was then shot twice in the head—execution style—with his own sidearm.
William Morales was sentenced to 99 years in prison for his participation with the terrorist organization Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puertorriquena (FALN). William Morales was a chief bomb maker for FALN, and he has been linked to the 1979 bombing of Fraunces Tavern in New York City, an attack that injured 60 and killed four.