Former Black Panther Member Pleads Guilty Following Extradition Back to the U.S.

A former member of the Black Panther Party, extradited from Canada this month, has pled guilty to the same charges which led to his extradition back to the United States.^[1]

Joseph Pannell, the subject of the extradition, pleaded guilty to an aggravated battery charge for the shooting of an ex-Chicago police officer. Pannell, who was 19 years old at the time of the shooting, was also a former member of the Black Panther Party.^[2]

Pannell has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and two years' probation. In addition, he will give $250,000 to the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, a fund established to assist the families of injured or fallen officers.^[3] According to Pannell’s attorneys, the money came from donations given by Pannell supporters in Canada as well as his defense counsel in the Chicago area. The idea to provide donations to the fund came from Knox’s family, according to Knox.^[4]

Pannell will be released March 7th, a month after he returned to Chicago and 39 years to the day after he shot Knox, who also stated that he was not upset about the outwardly short length of Pannell’s sentence.^[5]

According to Knox, "This is not 30 days. It's 30 days plus the time ... served in the various prisons, plus two years' probation, plus agreeing and stipulating that he tried to murder me."^[6]

Pannell was initially arrested after the shooting; however, he fled the country following his release on bail in the 1970s. He made his way to Toronto, where he eventually changed his name to Gary Freeman.^[7]

While in Canada he worked as a researcher at the Toronto Reference Library, where he married a co-worker and raised a family.^[8]

A Toronto judge ordered his extradition to the United States in 2005, but Pannell has been fighting the extradition order ever since. He finally volunteered to return to Chicago this month.^[9]

The 1976 Treaty on Extradition between the United States of America and Canada, governs extradition between the two nations.^[10] A supplementary protocol signed in 1988 and enacted in 1991 amended the original 1976 treaty. In the protocol, the typical "laundry list" of extraditable offenses common to older treaties was replaced with the more contemporary "dual criminality clause.^[11] Now under the Treaty, an extraditable offense is defined as "an offense punishable by the laws of both Contracting Parties by imprisonment or other form of detention for a term exceeding one year or any greater punishment."^[12]

Federal criminal defense attorney, Douglas McNabb has written extensively on the topic of International Extradition. Some of his work on the subject may be found here.

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[1] Karen Hawkins, Former Black Panther Pleads Guilty, Associated Press, Feb. 22, 2008 (available at www.ap.org).
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10]Treaty on Extradition between the United States of America and Canada, U.S.-Can., Mar. 22, 1976, 1971 U.S.T. LEXIS 226.
[11]Protocol Amending the Extradition Treaty with Canada, U.S.-Can., Nov. 26, 1991, 1988 U.S.T. LEXIS 182.
[12] Id. at Art. 2.