NY Daily News
December 20, 2014
Renewed relations with Cuba brought hope that New Jersey cop-killer JoAnne Chesimard might finally be extradited to the U.S. to finish serving her prison term.
The Queens-born Chesimard, now a 67-year-old fugitive granted political asylum by Fidel Castro, was a member of the Black Panthers and Black Liberation Army who went on a spree of city robberies and attacks on cops when she pulled the trigger and killed a New Jersey state trooper on May 2, 1973.
“We view any changes in relations with Cuba as an opportunity to bring her back to the United States to finish her sentence for the murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973,” State Police Col. Rick Fuentes said in a statement. “We stand by the reward money and hope that the total of $2 million will prompt fresh information in the light of this altered international relationship.”
Foerster, 34, was shot twice in the head with his own sidearm after the car Chesimard and two others were in was pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike. Chesimard was captured, tried and slapped with a life sentence, but escaped in 1979 and fled to the communist island nation.