The Black Panther Party Has Never Been More Popular. But Actual Black Panthers Have Been Forgotten. While the Panthers have become a staple of pop culture, former members of the group remain invisible. Warner Bros. "Judas and the Black Messiah," about the death of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. On October 7, 2020, Jalil Muntaqim exited the Sullivan Correctional Facility in upstate New York a free man. A member of the Black Panther Party and its more militant, clandestine offshoot, the Black Liberation Army, Muntaqim was 19 years old at the time of his 1971 arrest, which was followed by his conviction three years later for the murder of two NYPD police officers, Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini. After nearly a half-century behind bars and over a dozen parole requests, Muntaqim’s parole was approved last September, one month before his sixty-ninth birthday.