Veronza Bowers Jr. is 78 years old and the last living Black Panther held in federal prison. He has been incarcerated since 1974, convicted of the killing of a U.S. Park Service ranger in a case that the FBI Atlanta field office and the lead trial witness have themselves cast in doubt over the intervening decades.

Under 18 U.S.C. § 4206(d), Veronza's release was MANDATORY in 2004 — required by law. Yet for more than 20 years now, successive Attorneys General have used a rarely-invoked override authority to keep him inside. Two of the three U.S. Parole Commissioners have repeatedly voted for his release. The third has been overruled by AG memo each time.

We ask the President, the Attorney General, and the Parole Commission to do what should already have been done: release Veronza Bowers Jr. immediately. Twenty extra years of imprisonment past a federally-mandated release date is not a process. It is a punishment without authority.