Assata Shakur dies in Havana at 78

Assata Shakur, the Black liberation activist who lived in political exile in Cuba after escaping a U.S. prison, died Thursday in Havana at age 78, Cuban officials and her daughter said. Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Shakur, born Joanne Deborah Byron and later known as Joanne Chesimard, died of health complications related to advanced age. Her daughter, Kakuya Shakur, confirmed the death in a Facebook post, saying her mother "took her last earthly breath" at about 1:15 p.m. on Sept. 25.

Shakur's life intersected with some of the most contentious chapters of U.S. race and criminal justice history. A member of the Black Panther Party and later affiliated with the Black Liberation Army, she was wounded during a 1973 gunfight with New Jersey State Police troopers following a highway traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. Trooper Werner Foerster was killed and another officer wounded. Shakur was convicted in 1977 of murder, armed robbery and related charges and sentenced to life in prison. She maintained her innocence, writing from Cuba that she did not shoot anyone and that she had been targeted because of her activism.