Tupac Shakur’s Stepfather Released from Prison After 37 Years

Tupac Shakur’s stepfather Mutulu Shakur has been released on parole after spending nearly 37 years in prison, according to records from the Bureau of Prisons.

The U.S. Parole Commission granted his request for parole in October — after denying two prior requests in 2016 and in April — in order for Shakur, who has cancer, to spend his remaining days with family.

The commission determined that Shakur’s health had “significantly deteriorated,” which they said rendered him “infirm of mind and body” and “no longer physically capable of committing any federal, state or local crime,” per the New York Daily News.

Shakur, 72, was diagnosed with stage-3 multiple myeloma, a blood cancer which can damage the immune system, bones and kidneys, according to NBC News. Due to his health issues, he was being held at a federal medical center in Lexington, Kentucky.

Following his release, Shakur’s family issued a statement on his website that read: “Mutulu is now with his family.

This victory was secured by the steadfast support of his legal team, his family and his community comprised of all of you. … We ask that everyone respect Dr. Shakur’s privacy while he spends the holidays with his family and concentrates on his health and healing.”

Shakur was arrested in 1986 and convicted in 1988 for leading a rogue group of self-proclaimed revolutionaries through a series of robberies in New York and Connecticut, which resulted in the deaths of an armed guard and two officers.

He was also previously listed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

Tupac Shakur, who went by the moniker 2Pac, was murdered in 1996 at the age of 25. He was later inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 for his hip-hop music and cultural influence.