page_title: New Haven Black Panther trials
section_title: Trials
hierarchical_section_title: New Haven Black Panther trials / Trials
caption_attribution_description: English: &#160; Author/Creator: Date: 1971. Part of: Robert Templeton Drawings and sketches related to the trial of Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins, New Haven, Connecticut. Physical Description: 1 drawing color ill., oil pastels 62.4 x 50.3 cm. Folder or box number: Box 7 Subjects: Huggins, Ericka. Kimbro, Warren. Seale, Bobby, 1936- Sams, George W., Jr. Black Panther Party. African American political activists. African Americans. Black militant organizations. Black power. Political activists. Trials (Conspiracy) Trials (Kidnapping) Trials (Murder) Connecticut. Superior Court (New Haven County) Genre/Form: Drawings Pastels (Visual works) Cite as: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository: Beinecke Rare Book &amp; Manuscript Library, Yale University Bibliographic Record Number: 2026861 Call Number: JWJ MSS 33 View our Record: Permalink Flickr data on 2011-08-26: License: CC BY-SA 2.0 User: Beinecke Library
context_page_description: In 1970 there was a series of criminal prosecutions in New Haven, Connecticut against various members of the Black Panther Party. The charges ranged from criminal conspiracy to felony murder. All indictments stemmed from the murder of 19-year-old Alex Rackley in the early hours of May 21, 1969. The trials became a rallying-point for the American Left, and marked a decline in public support, even among the black community, for the Black Panther Party.
context_section_description: McLucas's trial set new records for the scale of judicial proceedings in Connecticut. It was the first in Connecticut to have metal detectors installed at the courtroom doors; jury selection took six weeks, a Connecticut record, and the jury deliberated for six days, another Connecticut record.  Despite impassioned accusations from protesters that McLucas was being railroaded into the electric chair by a "racist jury," the jurors (ten white, two black) acquitted him on the most severe charges, convicting him instead on the sole charge of conspiracy to commit murder.  His defense attorney declared, "The judge was fair, the jury was fair, and, in this case, a black revolutionary was given a fair trial."  McLucas was sentenced to twelve to fifteen years in prison.  His two collaborators in the murder, who had  pleaded to second degree murder, were released after four years.
  In October, 1970, Bobby Seale went on trial alongside Ericka Huggins, founder of the New Haven chapter. This trial was an even larger undertaking, involving a full four months of jury selection.  Seale's attorney emphasized that it was only Sams' testimony that tied Seale to Rackley's murder. Huggins's voice was heard on a tape recording of the victim's interrogation, played for the jury. Her lawyer argued that Huggins had been acting under duress. 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."
  "Ericka Huggins and Bobby Seale would have to stand trial for their lives because they had been unyielding in their efforts to forge liberating actions for Black people. And there were innumberable other instances of frame-ups and similar political reprisals."
  — Angela Davis, Ebony, July 1971, page 117
caption: Courtroom portraits including Huggins, Kimbro, Seale and Sams, 1970.
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