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The former Radical Weather Underground Judith Clark will soon be a free woman.
The New York State Parole Board granted early release Wednesday to Clark, who drove the leaked car in the infamous 20th October 1981 robbery in Rockland County, in which two police officers and an officer security had been killed.
The three victims were officers Edward O'Grady and Waverly Brown from the Nyack Police Department and security guard / driver Peter Paige.
Governor Andrew Cuomo initially granted a pardon to Clark in 2016, citing her "outstanding progress in personal development" at Bedford Hills Prison, making her eligible for parole.
But the board rejected his release in 2017.
An activist who led a public campaign for Clark's release applauded the new decision.
"Justice has finally been done, expected but realized. We hope that the release of Judith Clark will open the doors to other women and men who have been rehabilitated. That's the beginning of a real reform of the Parole Board, "said Allen Roskoff, Liberal Democrat Club President Jim Owles.
If Clark had not been sentenced to 75 years in prison, Clark, 69, would have been eligible for parole only in 2056.
In April 2017, the board of directors unanimously rejected Clark's release.
"We now find that your release at this time is incompatible with the well-being of society … You are a symbol of violent and terrorist crimes," said in the decision Tina Standford, Kevin Ludlow and Sally Thompson, members of the Parole Board.
They also noted that Clark had an aggravated battery criminal record, help with escape, mobilization and resistance to his arrest before his crimes in New York. And she was unrepentant at the time of her conviction, saying "at war with America".
But last year, the Parole Board released the cop killer Herman Bell, one of three Black Liberation Army terrorists who executed agents Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones in 1971.
Clark was convicted of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery in Rockland County for driving the vehicle away during the robbery.
She was sentenced to one of the longest sentences of her six co-defendants, the majority of whom have died or are no longer in detention.
Her only co-accused, Kathy Boudin, whose involvement in the underlying crime was similar to Clark's, was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years and released on parole in 2003.
Clark sued the Parole Board in December 2017 after the parole board refused her release to hold a new hearing.
But the courts of appeal have decided that she should wait for her next scheduled hearing this month.
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