Russell Shoatz

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Russell "Maroon" Shoatz (1943 - ) is a former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member, currently serving two life sentences in Waynesburg, PA for the 1970 murder of a police officer. Shoatz's supporters argue that he is a political prisoner.

As a young man Shoatz was a community activist and co-founder of the Black Unity Council, an organization that joined the Black Panther Party (BPP) in 1969.

From August 1970 to January 1972, Shoatz was active as an underground member of the Black Liberation Army, an armed group that splintered from the BPP.

[edit] Life in prison

In 1972, Russell Shoatz was apprehended and convicted of a 1970 attack on a Philadelphia police station in which a police officer was killed. He escaped from a Huntington, PA prison in 1977 but was recaptured a month later. Relocated to Fairview, a maximum security institution in Waymart, PA, in 1980 Shoatz again escaped after another prisoner smuggled in a revolver and sub-machine gun. Three days later, a shoot out with state authorities ended in his capture. Since 1991, Shoatz has been on 23-hour lockdown.

In 2005, following a prison blood test, Shoatz was diagnosed with prostate cancer. In May of that year, rap artist M1 of Dead Prez helped raise money for Shoatz as part of the "Free the Hood" Benefit/Tour.

Russell Shoatz's son, Russell Shoatz III, has worked to bring international attention to his father's case and is active within the Human Rights Coalition, Families and Communities United, Black August and Griotis.