One-time radical Judith Clark released from prison after 38 years


By LARRY MCSHANE
| NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
MAY 10, 2019 | 6:02 PM



Judith Clark during an interview with CUNY TV. (CUNY TV/CUNY TV)



Long-imprisoned ex-radical Judith Clark, whose parole last month set off a firestorm of outrage, was released Friday from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility after 38 years behind bars.


Clark plans to live at an undisclosed Manhattan location and remain “closely supervised to ensure her full compliance with all of the conditions of her parole,” said state Corrections Department spokesman Thomas Mailey in announcing her departure.


The former inmate, whose impending release infuriated law enforcement and the families of the three officers killed during a 1981 robbery involving Clark, already made her first visit to a parole officer, Mailey added.


Her new-found freedom will allow a long-awaited full-time reunion with her daughter Harriet, who was just 11 months old when Clark was cuffed while fleeing the scene of the deadly shootout.




The one-time member of the Weather Underground was cleared for release by a divided parole board in a 2-1 vote last month.
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Clark, 69, was convicted in the Oct. 20, 1981, murders of Nyack Police Sgt. Edward O’Grady, Nyack Police Officer Waverly “Chipper” Brown and Brinks security guard Peter Paige during a $1.6 million armored car robbery at the Nanuet Mall in Rockland County.


In this Nov. 24, 1981 file photo, Weather Underground member Judith Clark is handcuffed as she is escorted into Rockland County Courthouse, in New City, N.Y. (David Handschuh/AP)


Clark was the second-longest incarcerated woman in New York State, and her radicalism dated to the 1960s and her opposition to the war in Vietnam. That led her to the violent revolutionaries in the Weather Underground and a radical offshoot known as the May 19 Communist (sic!) Organization.


The botched Rockland County heist was meant to raise funds for the radical groups, but instead wound up as a bloodbath. When arrested, a remorseless Clark represented herself at trial and was sentenced to 75 years to life in prison for three counts of second-degree murder.
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But Clark showed real signs of rehabilitation behind bars, earning her master’s degree along with training service dogs, founding an AIDS education program and counseling mothers. More than 2,000 people submitted letter of support for her parole from prison.


She lost her first bid for parole two years ago after her sentence was commuted by Gov. Cuomo, making her eligible for release.


In his scathing parole dissent, board member William Smith Jr. referred to the murdered law enforcers and their suffering families.


“In time, the thousands of written comments in opposition and in favor of your release will be put in storage,” he wrote. “Media coverage will lessen. What will not diminish is the loss felt by the loved ones of (the dead). The sounds of their weeping will remain.”