As America's last major political victim of the 1960s, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt has haunted the legal establishment for close to thirty years. For some his release from prison suggests a rebirth of left radicalism. In fact, it severs the last tie with the radical movement of the 1960s. PNS commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson is the author of "Beyond OJ: Race. Sex and Class Lessons for America." His e-mail address is <ehutchi344@aol.com>.

LOS ANGELES -- For thirty years Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt was The Last Man Standing. Now he is finally free from playing that role.

In the 1996 remake of a classic Hollywood theme, a lone gun man, marked for death by legions of enemies, turns the tables and maneuvers his adversaries into bumping each other off. In the end, he is the only one left alive in the town.

Like the fictional movie character, Geronimo proved to be the ultimate survivor. With the FBI, LAPD and the courts ringed against him, Geronimo defied them all and won his fight for freedom.

Geronimo's story is the stuff of legend. He was a much-decorated Vietnam veteran, a Black Panther Party firebrand, and a prime target of the FBI's massive and illegal COINTELPRO program aimed at smashing the black movement and destroying its leaders. He was harassed, beaten and arrested. Nailed for murder on the word of an FBI stoolie, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. His legal battle of nearly 30 years became for many a symbol of, and last link to, the long defunct protest movement of the 1960s.

In a sense Geronimo was also my link to those bygone times. As a journalist who met him often at Panther events, he struck me as a man who wasn't given to spouting radical slogans or posturing, who truly believed a revolution could be made in America. When he was convicted of murder, I chalked him off as a casualty of government repression and of the Panther Party's final death throes.

During the next two decades, the mood of America sharply changed. The Reagan era launched the conservative assault on social programs and civil rights, and seemed to drive the final nail into the coffin of radical protest. Many ex-radicals and former Panthers died off or quietly made their peace with the system. As they nestled into middle-age, they traded their beads and black berets for business suits, designer dresses and cell phones. Some went further and created a cottage industry out of bashing the 1960s' radical movement.

Yet Geronimo continued to haunt the legal establishment. As America's last major political victim of the 1960s, his case screamed for some kind of resolution which could come only from his death or winning his freedom. When he finally beat the odds and won release, some took this as proof the criminal justice system actually worked.

In fact, a courageous judge upheld the letter of the law and erased the taint of Geronimo's conviction. But it took a long and costly legal fight, and a dedicated support movement, for it to happen. In the process, Geronimo's long imprisonment fulfilled the FBI's COINTELPRO goal of neutralizing a militant, charismatic African American leader.

What Geronimo's release does not suggest is any resurgence of the radicalism of the 1960s. Leftist radicals remain in organizational and leadership disarray -- still marginalized politically, as Americans reject their appeals for radical change.

And what about Geronimo? Will he be the radical fighter that branded America a racist and capitalist exploiter and demanded its destruction? If his remarks in court and immediately after his release are any indication, the answer is no.

He was humble and soft spoken, and showed no trace of bitterness. He profusely thanked the judge for his release, spoke proudly of his record as a Vietnam veteran, and solemnly promised to appear in court for future legal proceedings. His major concern was to visit his mother and attend his daughter's graduation from high school. He sounded more like a man well on his way to making his personal peace with the system, that is, if he hadn't already made it years ago.

The issues of racism, poverty and government hypocrisy that were the powerful catalysts for the radical movement of the 1960s have not disappeared. Other former Panthers and radical activists whose cases cry out for judicial redress still languish in American prisons.

But for now there is only one Geronimo, and his release from prison severs the last tie with the radical movement of the 1960s. He is no longer the last man standing as the symbol of American injustice.