Request for help in 1971 murder case spurs court filing

Request for help in 1971 murder case spurs court filing
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
03/12/2015 6:10 PM 03/12/2015 6:10 PM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
A fugitive living in Cuba wants decades-old charges accusing him of
killing a New Mexico police officer dismissed on grounds that Gov.
Susana Martinez has politicized the case.

An attorney this week filed a motion on behalf of Charlie Hill, saying
Hill could not get a fair trial in the 1971 killing of State Police
Officer Robert Rosenbloom during a traffic stop.

Responding to President Barack Obama's move to thaw relations with Cuba,
Martinez in December renewed a request that the Obama administration try
to extradite Hill, the last living suspect in Rosenbloom's death.

It was a request made previously by other New Mexico officials. Bill
Richardson, a former governor, congressman and ambassador, said he
pushed for extradition in talks with then-President Fidel Castro during
the 1980s but was stonewalled.

Members of New Mexico's congressional delegation also have said the
Obama administration should push for Hill's return in light of the
negotiations on restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Martinez's office said her letter — in which she asks Secretary of State
John Kerry and Attorney General Eric Holder for helping in bringing a
"cop-killer" to justice — was merely a request aimed at getting Hill in
front of a judge and jury.

Rosenbloom was gunned down in November 1971, along the side of
Interstate 40 west of Albuquerque after he radioed that he was stopping
a car for a routine check.

Fingerprints found the next morning in an abandoned car led to the
issuance of murder warrants for Hill, Michael Finney and Ralph Goodwin,
who were all in their early 20s at the time.

Police said the car contained numerous pieces of literature, including
pamphlets for the Republic of New Africa, a movement dedicated to
establishing a separate black nation in the U.S. South.

Three weeks after Rosenbloom's slaying, the men escaped an extensive
manhunt by bounding up a Trans World Airlines stairway at the
Albuquerque International Sunport and hijacking an aircraft. The flight
had originated in Phoenix and was headed for Chicago and then
Washington, D.C. Instead, the men reportedly forced the pilot to fly
them to Florida, where they dropped off all 43 passengers and loaded the
airplane with fuel. They continued to Havana.

Finney and Goodwin later died in Cuba.

Source: Request for help in 1971 murder case spurs court filing | Miami
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