In an emotionally wrenching hearing that took the authorities nearer to closing the books on the radical Symbionese Liberation Army, four former members of the group were sentenced today to state prison terms ranging from six to eight years for the murder of a bank customer during a robbery nearly 28 years ago. The self-styled revolutionary band burst on the national scene with the kidnapping of the newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst in 1974. Ms. Hearst aided in the robbery on April 21, 1975, at a branch of Crocker National Bank in Carmichael, Calif., just north of here, but was granted immunity in return for her testimony. The only trial in the case ended in an acquittal in 1976. For the family of the murder victim, Myrna Opsahl, the sentencing was a victory in a persistent campaign to bring the killers to justice. A photograph of Mrs. Opsahl, who was killed by a shotgun blast as she waited to deposit her church collections, stood on an easel in the courtroom. Her son, Jon Opsahl, said at the hearing, “For nearly 28 years, I have lived with the fact that monsters do exist, the homegrown terrorism is real, that the incomprehensible happened, and that beyond our family and church, no one else seemed to care, including and especially the defendants.” Full Story
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