Almost 40 years ago, then Black Panther, Sundiata Acoli, was part of a group of Panther’s abused by New Jersey police. During the fire-fight he shot dead state trooper Werner Foerster. Once tried he was handed down a life sentence plus 30 years, the longest in New Jersey history for such a crime.

Since 1992, when he was first eligible for parole, New Jersey police have fiercely opposed his release.

In a world where police seem to repeatedly walk free for the murder of black men, this feels outrageous.

Acoli has shown remorse for the killing, has pursued education and had nothing but an excellent prison record. Thousands of letters of support and many many years behind him for a crime it seems he is not a danger to society. YET, just before his 80th birthday he has been denied release yet again.

The UK’s Guardian reported:

“This is a punch to the gut,” said Soffiyah Elijah, an attorney who represented Acoli for decades and visited him days before he learned of his latest denial on 21 November.

The move comes after a panel of New Jersey judges ordered the board in 2014 to “expeditiously set conditions” for Acoli’s release. The court cited his good behavior since 1996, and argued the board had ignored a psychologist’s 2010 testimony that Acoli “expressed regret and remorse about his involvement” in the state trooper’s death. The expert determined Acoli posed a “low to moderate risk” of reoffending.

In February, a higher court overturned the order in a decision welcomed by state police as “a victory for law enforcement”. This prompted a new parole board hearing in June that led to the denial.

In a letter to supporters, Acoli said the June hearing focused “primarily about the events on the turnpike and almost nothing about my many positive accomplishments”. Acoli wrote that parole board members asked him, “Aren’t you angry that they broke Assata out of prison instead of you?” He responded that “I don’t or wouldn’t wish prison on anyone.”

Most of Acoli’s four decades in prison have been spent at “supermax” federal penitentiaries in Marion, Illinois, and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was held 23 hours a day in his cell under high security. He is now incarcerated at a federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland.

“They are determined to bury him alive,” Elijah told the Guardian.

“And we are equally determined to get him out.”

Read more in The Guardian.