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Former Black Panther Serving Life Sentence Dies In NE Prison

Members of the Black Panthers line up at a rally at DeFremery Park in Oakland, Calif.
Courtesy of Stephen Shames and Firelight Media
Members of the Black Panthers line up at a rally at DeFremery Park in Oakland, Calif.

The second of two former Black Panthers who always maintained their innocence in the 1970 bombing death of a white Omaha police officer has died in prison. A spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said Friday that Ed Poindexter had died a day earlier at the age of 79. The other man convicted in the death of Omaha Police Officer Larry Minard, David Rice, died in prison in 2016. The pair argued that they were targeted because of their membership in the Black Panthers by an FBI program that undermined radical political groups, and they questioned the legitimacy of crucial testimony that helped convict them. But their convictions and life sentences were upheld in numerous appeals.