2Pac’s stepfather Dr. Mutulu Shakur has been released from prison a little over one month after being granted parole due to a terminal cancer diagnosis.
According to Dr. Shakur’s website, the former Black Liberation Army leader walked out of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility outside of New York City on Friday morning (December 18). He is now at home with his family in Southern California.
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A statement on the site — which has been dedicated to supporting his fight for freedom — shared the Shakur family’s request for privacy, as the 72-year-old prepares to spend the holidays with his loved ones while tending to his health.
“The decision to grant parole is based on federal law guidelines for “old law” prisoners, finding that Dr. Shakur poses no threat to the community, taking into consideration his exemplary conduct in prison, his medical condition and how much time he has served,” read the statement. “Mutulu is now with his family. This victory was secured by the steadfast support of his legal team, his family and his community comprised of all of you.”
Mutulu Shakur’s release comes 5 months after he was diagnosed with a rare and incurable form of blood cancer. At the time, doctors estimated he had about six months to live. His legal team immediately filed his eleventh request for parole.
“His health situation is extremely dire right now,” Shakur’s attorney Brad Thomson told NBC News at the time. “He’s very much on an end-of-life trajectory. We’re looking at a matter of months at the most but, realistically, it could be a matter of days or weeks.”
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He continued: “At this point, the issue is getting him released so he can say goodbye to his loved ones, his family, his children, and grandchildren. To be surrounded by loved ones, so he can die in dignity, peace and comfort outside of prison.”
On November 10, the Mutulu Shakur was given permission to spend his final days outside of prison by the U.S. Parole Commission, after 36 years behind bars. His prison release had been denied 10 times until an October hearing, where the federal parole commission admitted he held an impeccable institutional record and was no longer a risk to society.
“We now find your medical condition renders you so infirm of mind and body that you are no longer physically capable of committing any Federal, State or local crime,” the parole commission said.
The panel previously denied his release in September, despite medical reports supporting his decline in physical function, confusion and hallucinations.
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Shakur was convicted of racketeering conspiracy charges in 1981 for his involvement in the robbery of a Brink’s armored truck, where a guard and two police officers were killed. He took responsibility for his actions and expressed remorse, before later being convicted for helping his sister, 2Pac’s activist godmother Assata Shakur, escape from prison.
Mutulu Shakur was incarcerated under “old law,” a set of federal sentencing guidelines in place for crimes before 1987, meaning his parole decisions have been under the oversight of a U.S. Parole Commission that was intended to be phased out decades ago.
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A judge who rejected his request for compassionate release in 2020 told Shakur he could reapply at “the point of approaching death.” That same judge, now 90 years old, was the one who sentenced him over 30 years ago.
