Michael Gold and James C. McKinley Jr.

Clark, 69, was the getaway driver in the bungled 1981 heist in a suburb of New York City in which two police officers and a guard were killed.

After her arrest and during her trial, Clark remained defiant in her revolutionary beliefs. She said she was “an anti-imperialist freedom fighter” and maintained violence was “a liberating force.”

But during her decades in prison, she has said, she abandoned those beliefs and faced the pain she had caused the victims and their families. “I had to grapple with what happened to my humanity,” she said in 2017. She apologized, devoted herself to good works and became a model of rehabilitation.

Many liberal elected officials viewed Clark as a symbol of the need for clemency and forgiveness, maintaining that she had to be released from prison if the state correctional system was to live up to its ideals, even in politically charged cases involving the deaths of police officers.

“We are grateful that the parole board affirmed what everyone who has interacted with Judy already knows — that she is a rehabilitated, remorseful woman who poses no threat to society,” said Michael Cardozo, one of Clark’s lawyers.

She is scheduled to be released from prison by May 15.

But for law enforcement groups, many Republican elected officials and some victims of the shooting and their families, she was the face of terrorism and deserved no mercy.

“We’re outraged and sickened by this whole decision,” said Michael Paige, whose father was killed in the shooting. “Judith Clark is a murderer, plain and simple. She deserves nothing but to spend the rest of her life behind bars.”

Arthur Keenan, a former detective who was wounded in the robbery, said that he was “absolutely not” in favor of Clark’s parole. He said her record of good behavior in prison hardly outweighed her crime.

“Doesn’t what happened to the people who lost loved ones and were wounded matter?” he said.

Ed Day, the county executive of Rockland County, where the killings took place, called the parole board’s ruling a slap in the face to the victim’s families.

“This perversion of justice is a sad continuation of the deadly assault on police officers happening across our nation,” Day, a former New York police officer, said in a statement.

The decision to release Clark came after a lobbying campaign involving 11 members of Congress, 11 state senators, the former Manhattan district attorney, a former chief judge, four former parole board commissioners and a former superintendent of the prison where she was housed.

Her supporters, including 70 elected officials, sent a letter to the parole board arguing that the state’s correctional system should not exist solely for retribution, but also for rehabilitation, and that Clark had served a long sentence, accepted responsibility for her crime and shown genuine remorse.

Clark, then 31, drove a getaway car during the robbery of a Brink’s truck Oct. 20, 1981, outside a mall in Nanuet, about 30 miles north of New York City in Rockland County.

The heist was part of a joint scheme by the Black Liberation Army and the May 19th Communist Organization — an offshoot of the Weather Underground, a radical left-wing group — to steal $1.6 million to finance a guerrilla uprising. They hoped to establish the Republic of New Afrika, a separate black nation in the southern United States.

During the robbery, a Brink’s security guard, Peter Paige, was gunned down, and later, two Nyack police officers, Sgt. Edward O’Grady and Officer Waverly Brown, were shot and killed at a roadblock where they had attempted to stop a U-Haul van involved in the robbery.

Clark represented herself at her trial. Still fueled by the beliefs that made her a willing participant in the robbery, she was deeply uncooperative and defiant in court. During jury selection she decried the court proceedings as “fascist” and “racist.”

She was found guilty of all charges, and the sentencing judge said she was beyond rehabilitation. She was imprisoned at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women in Westchester County.

Clark has said that building a relationship with her daughter, Harriet, who was an infant when Clark was incarcerated, led her to jettison her political views and to reflect on the harm she had done.

She eventually issued several public apologies for her role in the robbery. In 1994, she wrote that she felt “enormous regret, sorrow and remorse” about her actions. Eight years later, she apologized publicly to the victims and their families.

She also worked to build a new life behind bars. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, led educational programs for inmates and started programs to counsel AIDS patients and improve prenatal care in prison. She participated in a program that trained service dogs, some of whom went to work with law enforcement.

In late 2016, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recognized her “exceptional strides in self-development,” commuted her sentence to 35 years and made her eligible for parole.

Cuomo at the time attributed the decision in part to an hourlong meeting he had with Clark at the prison earlier that year.

“When you meet her, you get a sense of her soul,” Cuomo said then. “She takes full responsibility. There are no excuses. There are no justifications.”

But law enforcement groups, conservative judges and Republican elected officials fought against her release, and in 2017, the parole board unanimously voted to keep her in prison, saying she was “still a symbol of violent and terroristic crime.”

Clark’s most recent parole board hearing occurred April 3, in front of a different three-person panel that ultimately split, 2-1, in favor of granting her parole.

Ellen Evans Alexander and Tana Agostini, both appointed to the parole board by Cuomo, said in the board’s written decision that Clark had provided clear evidence of rehabilitation. They also cited Clark’s advanced age and her charitable work in prison as reasons they voted for releasing her.

The panel’s dissenting member, Walter William Smith, who was first named to the parole board by Gov. George E. Pataki in 1996, said that he believed Clark’s release would undermine respect for the rule of law and expressed concern how her parole would affect the victims’ families. “The sounds of their weeping will remain,” he wrote.

Keenan echoed the sentiment, saying that the effects of the shooting still lingered with him 37 years later. He has post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.

While he said he believed the parole board had followed the law, Keenan criticized Cuomo for putting the matter in front of the board in the first place.

“The governor’s decision to grant clemency on this was so one-sided,” Keenan said. “And he refuses to even speak with me about it. How can he ignore a police detective from the state of New York who was shot during this crime?”

Clark, who was not available for an interview, was overwhelmed and emotional about the decision, Cardozo said.

Another one of her lawyers, Steve Zeidman, said Clark planned to work with Hour Children, a nonprofit that helps women in prison and their families.

Three others convicted in the Brink’s robbery remain in prison. Mutulu Shakur, who prosecutors described as the mastermind behind the heist, is incarcerated at the federal penitentiary in Victorville, California, according to federal Bureau of Prisons records.

Shakur, who is the stepfather of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur, was denied parole in 2018. He is scheduled to be released in 2024, federal prison records show.

David Gilbert, who was convicted on second-degree murder and robbery charges, is still being held at Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York. He, like Clark, was sentenced to 75 years to life. He will not be eligible for parole until 2056.

Samuel Brown, who authorities believe fired the shots that killed O’Grady and Brown, is still serving a 75-year sentence.

Kathy Boudin, who pleaded guilty to murder and robbery charges, served 22 years in prison before being paroled in August 2003. She works as an adjunct professor at Columbia University.

Two others convicted in connection with the robbery, Kuwasi Balagoon — also known as Donald Weems — and Marilyn Jean Buck, died in prison.

This article originally appeared in <a id="8e2fd132-d158-3429-a666-937bc23660e8" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/nyregion/judith-clark-parole-brinks-robbery.html">The New York Times</a>.

Getaway Driver in Deadly 1981 Brink's Heist Is Paroled After 37 Years

Judith Clark, who as a young woman took part in a deadly robbery of a Brink’s armored car that represented one of the last gasps of the violent left-wing extremism of the 1960s and 1970s, was paroled Wednesday after being imprisoned in New York for 37 years, her lawyers said.

Getaway driver in deadly 1981 brink's heist is paroled after 37 years

Clark, 69, was the getaway driver in the bungled 1981 heist in a suburb of New York City in which two police officers and a guard were killed. She had originally been sentenced to 75 years to life, but became a model of rehabilitation in prison, expressing deep remorse for her crime and doing good works.

Many liberal elected officials viewed her as a symbol of the need for clemency and forgiveness, maintaining that she had to be released from prison if the state correctional system was to live up to its ideals, even in politically charged cases involving the deaths of police officers.

But for law enforcement groups and many Republican elected officials, she was the face of terrorism and deserved no mercy.

The decision to release Clark came after a lobbying campaign involving 11 state senators, the former Manhattan district attorney, a former chief judge, four former parole board commissioners and a former superintendent of the prison where she was housed.

Clark, then 31, drove a getaway car during the attempted robbery in Rockland County in 1981. The heist was part of a scheme by a radical offshoot of militant leftist group Weather Underground, known as the May 19th Communist Organization, to steal $1.6 million for financing a guerrilla uprising.

Two Nyack police officers, Sgt. Edward O’Grady and Officer Waverly Brown, and a Brink’s security guard, Peter Paige, were shot and killed during the robbery, and though Clark was not at the scene of the shooting, she was charged with second-degree murder and robbery.

Clark represented herself at her trial. Still fueled by the beliefs that made her a willing participant in the robbery, she was deeply uncooperative and defiant in court.

Clark expressed no remorse for her actions, telling the jury that revolutionary violence was a “liberating force.” She described herself as an “anti-imperialist freedom fighter” during jury selection and decried the court proceedings as “fascist” and “racist.”

She was found guilty of both charges, and the sentencing judge said she was beyond rehabilitation.

But she evolved over the years while imprisoned at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Westchester County. Clark has said that in the process of building a relationship with her daughter, Harriet, who was an infant when Clark was incarcerated, she jettisoned her political views and began to reflect on the harm her actions had caused. “I had to grapple with what happened to my humanity,” she said in a 2017 interview.

After a prolonged public silence, she eventually issued several public apologies for her role in the robbery. In 1994, she wrote that she felt “enormous regret, sorrow and remorse” about her actions. Eight years later, she apologized publicly to the victims of the Brink’s robbery and their families.

“For the rest of my life, I will be faced with the knowledge that my inability to tolerate ambiguity and face responsibility led to my participation in the death and destruction of Oct. 20, 1981,” she wrote in a letter that was published in the Journal News in Westchester County.

Faced with the prospect of spending her life in prison, Clark worked to build a new life behind bars. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees, led educational programs for inmates, and started programs to fight AIDS and improve prenatal care in prison. She participated in a program that trained service dogs, some of whom went to work with law enforcement.

“When you meet her you get a sense of her soul,” Cuomo said then. “Her honesty makes her almost transparent as a personality. She takes full responsibility. There are no excuses. There are no justifications.”

But law enforcement groups, conservative judges and Republican elected officials fought against her release, and in 2017, the parole board voted to keep her in prison, saying she was “still a symbol of a terroristic crime.”

At least two others connected to the Brink’s robbery remain in prison. Mutulu Shakur, who prosecutors described as the mastermind behind the heist, is incarcerated at the federal penitentiary in Victorville, California, according to federal Bureau of Prisons records.

Shakur, stepfather of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur, was denied parole in 2018. He is scheduled to be released in 2024, federal prison records show.

David Gilbert, who was convicted on second-degree murder and robbery charges, is still being held at the maximum-security Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York. He, like Clark, was sentenced to 75 years to life. He will not be eligible for parole until 2056.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/nyregion/judith-clark-parole-brinks-robbery.html" id="8e2fd132-d158-3429-a666-937bc23660e8">The New York Times</a>.

Judith Clark, Getaway Driver in Deadly Brink's Heist in 1981, Granted Parole

Judith Clark, who as a young woman took part in a deadly attempted robbery of a Brink’s armored car that represented one of the last gasps of the violent left-wing extremism of the 1960s and 1970s, was paroled Wednesday after being imprisoned in New York for 37 years.

But she evolved over the years while imprisoned at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Westchester County. Clark has said that in the process of building a relationship with her daughter, Harriet, who was an infant when Clark was incarcerated, she jettisoned her political views and began to reflect on the harm her actions had caused.

“When you meet her you get a sense of her soul,” Cuomo said then.

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Michael Gold and James C. McKinley Jr.

Articles written by the author

Getaway driver in deadly 1981 brink's heist is paroled after 37 years

Judith Clark, Getaway Driver in Deadly Brink's Heist in 1981, Granted Parole

Judith Clark, Getaway Driver in Deadly Brink's Heist in 1981, Granted Parole