Today, we broadcast our one-hour, in-studio special with former Black Panther Party leader, decades-long political prisoner, and The Real News Executive Producer Marshall "Eddie" Conway.
Marshall "Eddie" Conway (born April 23, 1946) was the Minister of Defense of the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party who in 1971 was convicted of murder of a police officer a year earlier, in a trial with many irregularities. In 2014 he was released on parole, after an appellate court ruled that his jury had been given improper instructions. In addition to his position in the Black Panther Party, Conway was also employed by the United States Postal Service. He was unaware that some of the founding members of the Baltimore chapter of the Party were actually undercover officers at the Baltimore Police Department who reported daily on his activities at the chapter. At the same time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had also started its own investigation of Conway, recording his whereabouts, contacting his employers at the Post Office and maintaining contact with the Baltimore Police Department.