Bobby Seale, Ericka Huggins Are On Trial in New Haven, Conn.

Bobby Seale, Ericka Huggins Are On Trial in New Haven, Conn.

Black Panther Party

This leaflet details the plight of Black Panther Party leaders, Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins, who were on trial in 1970 for criminal conspiracy to commit the 1969 murder of 19-year old Alex Rackley, a member of the Black Panthers suspected of being an FBI informant. The case became a cause celebré on the political left. In the end, the jury was unable to reach a verdict, deadlocked 11 to 1 for Seale's acquittal and 10 to 2 for Huggins' acquittal. On May 25, 1971 Judge Harold Mulvey stunned courtroom spectators by dismissing the charges against Huggins and Seale saying, "I find it impossible to believe that an unbiased jury could be selected without superhuman efforts -- efforts which this court, the state and these defendants should not be called upon either to make or to endure."

unknown

Roz Payne

Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

ca. 1970

mimeograph

leaflet

paper