Separatists on Trial

The Black Liberation Army, in an attempt to build a utopian black republic, enlisted separatists who belonged to the radical Weather Underground to help rob a Brink's armored car in Nyack, New York, on October 20, 1981. They murdered one guard and injured the other. During their preliminary hearing, on September 20, 1982, Judith Clark, Sekou Odinga, Kuwasi Balagoon, and David Gilbert shouted "Long live Palestine!" before they were escorted from the courtroom. Balagoon, Clark, and Gilbert, were tried in state court in nearby Goshen, New York, while Odinga was tried on federal charges in Manhattan. Balagoon died of AIDS a few years after the trial, Odinga was released in 2014, and Clark and Gilbert remain incarcerated.