Tupac Shakur’s Stepfather Granted Compassionate Release After Serving More Than 35 Years in Federal Prison

Tupac Shakur’s stepfather has been granted parole after imprisonment for more than 35 years.

According to NBC News, Mutulu Shakur, stepfather to one of hip-hop’s most popular deceased recording artists, Tupac, will be walking out of jail next month on Dec. 16. He has been granted compassionate release after advocates have been fighting for years for him to be released due to his diagnosis of stage-3 multiple myeloma (an incurable blood cancer that can do damage to the bones and kidneys).

The 72-year-old activist and holistic healthcare advocate will spend his remaining days with family and friends.

NBC News obtained papers stating that the U.S. Parole Commission recently granted a request to release Shakur in October, and the decision to grant the 72-year-old parole was made public last week on Thursday.

He is currently being held at a federal medical center in Lexington, Kentucky. The facility is a prison for inmates who require medical care.

Shakur’s attorney, Brad Thomson, has gone on record stating that the prisoner has massive weight loss due to treatments for his medical conditions. He reportedly contracted COVID-19 twice and has had to depend on IV feeding tubes on and off since May. Earlier this year, Thomson said that doctors with the Federal Bureau of Prisons had given Shakur less than six months to live. They noted that treatment for his cancer no longer worked.

“There are a lot of tears of joy,” an organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Jomo Muhammad, said after the parole was granted. He has been working to gain Shakur’s freedom for some time. “There’s still disbelief because we were steadying ourselves for another denial. Now folks are excited about being able to reunite Mutulu with his family. We were crying together. It’s a long time overdue.”

The Associated Press reported that Shakur was denied parole in 2016. He was accused and convicted of leading a revolutionary group responsible for killing two New York City police officers and an armed guard. He was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison after being charged with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO Act), bank robbery, armed bank robbery, and bank robbery-murder. Shakur was also convicted of assisting Assata Shakur with her escape from a New Jersey prison in 1979.