First woman on FBI most wanted terror list

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

Joanne Deborah Chesimard is seen in a combination of undated Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) handout photos. Chesimard has been named a Most Wanted Terrorist by the FBI -- the first woman ever to make the list, the FBI announced at a news conference in Newark, New Jersey May 2, 2013. REUTERS/FBI/Handout via Reuters

A woman who killed a police officer 40 years ago and later fled to Cuba has been placed on the FBI’s list of “most wanted terrorists,” U.S. officials said May 2.

Law enforcement officials said Joanne Chesimard is the first woman ever to make the list, and one of only two to make the list accused of crimes carried out on U.S. soil.

“Joanne Chesimard is a domestic terrorist who murdered a law enforcement officer execution-style,” said FBI agent Aaron Ford, in a statement issued four decades to the day after the death of the New Jersey State Police trooper. “We want the public to know that we will not rest until this fugitive is brought to justice,” he said.

$1 million reward

U.S. authorities say that on May 2, 1973, Chesimard, a member of the radical Black Liberation Army group, along with two accomplices, fatally shot the highway police officer during a traffic stop. She was convicted of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and other crimes in 1977 and sentenced to life in prison.

Chesimard escaped prison less than two years later, and lived underground before surfacing in 1984 in Cuba, where she had sought political asylum, the FBI said.

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the capture of Chesimard, while the state of New Jersey is offering a separate $1 million reward.