Parole Board Will Review Terms for Ex-Panther Spain

VACAVILLE, Calif. — The California parole board dangled a complete parole victory before ex-Black Panther radical John Spain on Wednesday but pulled back when one member of the panel asked for further review by the entire board in September.

For now, however, Spain, who has been out of prison for two years, was found suitable for parole in the unprecedented hearing at Vacaville State Prison.

At the request of one member of the three-person panel, the full nine-member board will review the decision Sept. 11, according to Bob Patterson, executive officer of the Board of Prison Terms.

Spain is believed to be the first inmate ever hauled back for parole consideration after his release from prison. The board agreed to set the start of Spain’s three-year parole on the date he was released from prison in March, 1988. That would end his parole next March.

Patterson said the full board will have the authority to accept those parole terms or order a new parole hearing.

Spain, 40, served 21 years in prison for a 1966 Los Angeles murder. While in prison, he fell in with revolutionaries and was accused of joining in a conspiracy to escape San Quentin on Aug. 21, 1971, along with Black Panther George Jackson, in what exploded into the bloodiest day in San Quentin history.

Jackson, three guards and two inmates were killed.

Spain, dubbed one of the “San Quentin Six,” was tried along with five other inmates. He was convicted in 1976 of conspiracy to murder even though he was not directly involved in the deaths.