Tupac Shakur's stepfather up for parole after spending 30 years in prison

Rapper, Tupac Shakur's step father, Mutulu Shakur made the FBI's most wanted list in 1986. Hee was eventually captured, convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison for leading a revolutionary group responsible for a trail of bloodshed, including the slayings of an armed guard and two New York police officers. Shakur was also charged with aiding fellow revolutionary Joanne Chesimard (Assata Shakur) escape from a New Jersey prison, where she eventually fled to Cuba. But after serving half his prison sentence, Mutulu Shakur might soon be a free man.

The 65-year-old, stepfather to the late rapper Tupac Shakur, is eligible for mandatory parole after serving 30 years of the 60-year sentence he was given in 1988 for masterminding a string of deadly armed robberies in New York and Connecticut committed by a militant political group known as "The Family."
His parole hearing is to take place this week at the federal penitentiary in Victorville, California, where he is serving his sentence, according to U.S. Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr.

Michael Paige, who is the son of one of the slain armed guards isn't happy about the upcoming parole hearing.
He said:

"That's the going rate? Thirty years for at least three lives that were taken?" he said. "I was 16 years when he was killed by these animals. Not a day goes by that I don't think about my father."

Following Mutulu Shakur's parole hearing, a hearing officer will make a recommendation to the U.S. Parole Commission on whether or not he should be released. The federal commission will make the final decision on whether to grant parole.

Although federal parole was abolished in 1987, it is still granted for inmates convicted before then. And under the rules in place at the time of his conviction, parole is mandatory for Shakur unless a commission finds he is likely to reoffend or has frequently violated prison rules.

Source: AP