Susan Rosenberg

Susan Lisa Rosenberg (born October 5, 1955) is an American activist, writer, advocate for social justice and prisoners' rights. From the late 1970s into the mid-1980s, Rosenberg was active in the Leftist May 19th Communist Organization ("M19CO") which, according to a contemporaneous FBI report, "openly advocate[d] the overthrow of the U.S. Government through armed struggle and the use of violence". The organization's actions primarily consisted of providing political and material support for wars of national liberation, outside and within U.S. borders. After living in clandestinity for three years, Rosenberg was arrested in 1984 while in possession of a large cache of explosives and firearms, including automatic weapons. She had also been sought as an accomplice in the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur and in the 1981 Brink's robbery that resulted in the deaths of two police officers and a guard, although she was never charged in either case. After trial on the weapons charges, she was sentenced to 58 years' imprisonment. Rosenberg spent 16 years in prison, during which she became a poet, author, and AIDS activist. Her sentence was commuted to time served by President Bill Clinton on January 20, 2001, his final day in office.