Activists are working to keep Tupac Shakur’s stepfather from dying of cancer in prison

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July 21, 2022

By Char Adams, NBC NEWS

Prison doctors have given Mutulu Shukur, activist and Tupac Shakur’s stepfather, up to six months to live, according to his attorney.

Mutulu Shakur in the Manhattan Correction Center in N.Y., in 1987. (Jim Hughes / NY Daily News via Getty Images file)

Organizers have launched a movement to release Tupac Shakur’s stepfather from a decades-long prison sentence as he faces a rare form of blood cancer that his doctors say is incurable.

Mutulu Shakur, an activist and holistic health care advocate, has been behind bars for more than 35 years and now, at 71, has several health issues, most notably stage-3 multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that can affect the bones and kidneys.

[…]

“His health situation is extremely dire right now. He’s very much on an end-of-life trajectory. We’re looking at a matter of months at the most but, realistically, it could be a matter of days or weeks,” Thomson told NBC News. “At this point, the issue is getting him released so he can say goodbye to his loved ones, his family, his children, and grandchildren. To be surrounded by loved ones, so he can die in dignity, peace and comfort outside of prison.”

Shakur was diagnosed with myeloma in 2019, Thomson said, and his legal team requested his “compassionate release” in May 2020. U.S. District Judge Charles Haight Jr. in November 2020 denied Shakur’s request, holding that his crimes were too serious, and his health had not deteriorated enough to warrant release.

Learn more about Shakur’s sentencing and illness.

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Many would argue that this is an example of the cycle of harm within prisons.

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