Black Liberation Army, New York cop killer Herman Bell, gets parole: no word on when he can vote
Efforts to block parole for a former member of the Black Liberation Army, a convicted killer two New York City police officers nearly 50 years ago have failed. Herman Bell has been released from prison on parole.
Bell, 70, was freed from maximum-security Shawangunk Correctional Facility in upstate New York on Friday at approximately 5 pm. He was initially scheduled to be let out on April 17, but his exit was delayed after the police union appealed the Parole Board’s decision on behalf of the widow of one of the slain officers.
“The parole board has lost their [expletive] humanity to think that a murderer should walk their streets,” said Patrick Lynch, President of the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, which represents most officers in the New York Police Department (NYPD).
Bell’s discharge was also opposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who appointed 11 of the parole board’s 14 members, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who insisted that cop killers should get “life in prison. Period. [There’s] nothing else to discuss.”
On May 21, 1971, Bell and two other Black Liberation Army revolutionaries ambushed NYPD Officers Joseph Piagentini, 28, and Waverly Jones, 33, after luring them to a Harlem housing project with a hoax 911 call.
Bell “claimed at trial that the violence was part of their war against the United States.” The murderous trio was each convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life.
For decades, he claimed to be a political prisoner who was framed and did not confess to the killings until 2012.
It was not until Bell’s parole hearing in March, after renouncing his motivations for the premeditated murders, that he was finally granted parole.
Cuomo has worked recently to get parolees voting rights, so there no word yet on if Bell will qualify for the midterm election in the fall, more here.
