Elmer Geronimo Pratt Elmer Geronimo Pratt. Former Black Panther Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt dies. Former Black Panther Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, who was wrongly imprisoned for 27 years on a murder conviction, died Thursday in Tanzania, his former lawyer said. He was 63. Stuart Hanlon, a San Francisco-based lawyer who helped overturn Pratt's murder conviction, said he did not know the exact cause of death. Pratt died in a small village in Tanzania where he lived with his wife and child, Hanlon said. Hanlon called Pratt a "true American," saying that he was an Army veteran who served two tours in Vietnam before joining the Black Panther Party. "He could've been a great leader. He was very charismatic," Hanlon said. "His legacy is that he never gave up. He never got despondent or angry." Pratt's conviction became a rallying cry for rights groups that said he had been framed for his strident activism during the turbulent civil rights era...