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<font size=3>1960s Militant Moved to Federal Custody<br><br>
By GREG BLUESTEIN | Associated Press Writer <br>
9:22 AM CDT, August 3, 2007<br>
<br>
ATLANTA - A 1960s black militant sentenced to life for killing a deputy
in 2000 has been transferred into federal custody because his
high-profile status presented "unique issues," Georgia
corrections officials said. State officials decided they were no longer
equipped to handle Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, who gained fame when he was a
Black Panthers leader known as H. Rap Brown, corrections spokeswoman
Yolanda Thompson said Thursday. She said nothing specific triggered the
move. "We assess our inmate population daily, and we assess the
needs of our inmates," Thompson said. "This is an ongoing case,
involving the best interest of our overall population. And he's a very
high-profile inmate." <br>
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<br>
Al-Amin, 63, was taken to the Federal Bureau of Prisons' transfer center
in Oklahoma on Wednesday, said Felicia Ponce, a bureau spokeswoman. He
remained there Friday. <br><br>
Al-Amin is serving a life sentence without parole for the March 2000
shooting death of Fulton County Sheriff's Deputy Ricky Kinchen. <br>
Kinchen, 38, was killed and his partner, Aldranon English, was wounded
when they went to serve a warrant to Al-Amin. The warrant was for failing
to appear in court to face charges of driving a stolen car and
impersonating a police officer. <br><br>
Al-Amin was captured in Alabama four days later. He was convicted in
2002. <br><br>
His family and friends have claimed that state prison wardens mistreated
Al-Amin. Two years ago, supporters protested outside the prison system
headquarters, claiming that Al-Amin was being subjected to solitary
confinement 23 hours a day and forced to submit to humiliating strip
searches in front of female guards. <br><br>
A state prison spokesman had said Al-Amin was under lockdown because of
his security risk level, which is based on an inmate's criminal history
and behavior in prison. The spokesman denied that Al-Amin would be
subjected to strip searches in front of female guards. <br>
Many still know Al-Amin as H. Rap Brown, the radical who served as a
leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1967, he
famously said that violence was "as American as cherry pie."
<br><br>
Brown changed his name when he converted to the Dar-ul Islam movement in
the 1970s while serving a five-year sentence for his role in a robbery
that ended in a shootout with New York police. <br><br>
He later emerged as a leader of one of the nation's largest black Muslim
groups, the National Ummah. The movement, which has formed 36 mosques
around the nation, has been credited with revitalizing poverty-stricken
pockets such as Atlanta's West End, where Al-Amin owned a grocery
store.<br><br>
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