HE BECAME ELIGIBLE FOR PAROLE ONLY LAST MONTH AFTER HIS 75 YEARS-TO-LIFE SENTENCES WAS SHORTENED BY FORMER GOV. ANDREW CUOMO HOURS BEFORE HE LEFT OFFICE. — ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Former Weather Underground radical David Gilbert has been granted parole after decades in prison for a fatal 1981 Brink's robbery north of New York City.
A state corrections department spokesperson said Tuesday that the 76-year-old Gilbert appeared before the board on Oct. 19 and was subsequently granted parole.
He will be able to leave Shawangunk Correctional Facility in New York's Hudson Valley next month.
Gilbert has been imprisoned since shortly after the infamously botched robbery in which a guard and two police officers were killed.
He became eligible for parole only last month after his 75 years-to-life sentences was shortened by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo hours before he left office.
His son, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, supported Gilbert's release after other defendants related to the case had already been released from prison, the Associated Press reported.
The news outlet reported that Gilbert, along with other members of the Weather Underground and members of the Black Liberation Army, stole $1.6 million from an armored car on Oct. 20, 1981.
The AP reported that two police officers and a Brink's guard were shot and killed during the holdup.