The Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) - A New York man who belonged to a violent revolutionary group three decades ago was convicted Monday of the 1971 slaying of an Atlanta police officer.
Freddie Hilton was taken to Fulton County from a New York jail last year because police believed they finally had enough evidence to charge him, one of the original suspects.
Officer James Richard Greene was shot and killed in his patrol car Nov. 3, 1971, at an Atlanta gas station.
Hilton was a member of the Black Liberation Army, a group that advocated killing policemen to protest racial discrimination. Greene’s gun and badge were taken after he was killed, a mark of the revolutionary group.
Hilton and another man who has since died were heard bragging about killing the officer, but prosecutors said they didn’t have enough evidence to take either man to trial. The charges were revived after former Black Liberation Army members came forward.
In the three decades since the crime, Hilton had moved to New York, converted to Islam and was working for a phone company. At the time of his transfer to Fulton County, Hilton was being held in a New York jail on suspicion of child molestation. He was not charged in that case.
Hilton was found guilty Monday on five counts, including murder and armed robbery. The sentencing phase of his trial has not begun.