Joan Little Acquitted (1975)

Fri Aug 15, 1975

Image: Joan Little (left) and one of her attorneys (Karen Galloway) wait for an elevator on July 14th, 1975, in the Wake County Courthouse where Little was on trial [zinnedproject.org]

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Joan Little (pronounced "Jo Ann", 1953 - ) is a black woman whose trial for the 1974 murder of Clarence Alligood, a white prison guard at Beaufort County Jail in Washington, North Carolina, became a cause célèbre of the civil rights, feminist, and anti-death penalty movements.

On this day in 1975, Little became the first woman in United States history to be acquitted using the defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault. Her case was also a pioneering instance of the application of scientific jury selection.

On August 27th, 1974, a police officer at the Beaufort County jail discovered the body of jailer Clarence Alligood on Joan Little's bunk, naked from the waist down and semen on his leg, with stab wounds to his head and heart areas. Alligood had suffered stab wounds to the temple and the heart area from an icepick. Little had also escaped.

Little turned herself in a week later and was charged with first degree murder, which, if convicted, would result in the death penalty. During her trial, other women came forward to testify about Alligood's history of sexual assault in prison, and Little was acquitted by a racially-mixed jury of six white and six black people.

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• Date: 1975-08-15
• Learn More: www.zinnedproject.org, www.aaihs.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

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Edit: Removed the NSFW tag.