Two matchboxes of marijuana were allegedly found later in the vehicle. Jensen held that Newton's probation was still in effect when officer Frey decided to arrest him for falsely identifying himself as the owner of the van. Newton would claim that he was sentenced for committing a misdemeanor, not a felony, and that he was actually coming home from celebrating the end of his probation when Frey stopped him. Prosecutor Jensen claimed that Newton was a convicted felon on probation for a 1964 assault conviction. Both sides fought hard to determine the final composition of the jury, which ultimately was composed of 11 whites and 1 black.
#Huey p. newton trial
Garry stubbornly held to the strategy, trying to imply that Newton could not get a fair trial or, at least, to sensitize acceptable jurors to racial problems. Lowell Jensen frequently objected that such issues were irrelevant to the case. During the voir dire questioning of prospective jurors, Garry rigorously probed attitudes about race, the Black Panther Party, the Vietnam War, and the police. Newton's trial began in July 1968 under massive security. Garry's pretrial strategy was unsuccessful but thorough, consuming nine months.
#Huey p. newton registration
Since blacks were disproportionately under-represented on the county voter registration lists from which jury rolls were compiled, he proposed that providing Newton's constitutional right to a trial by his peers was impossible. Garry argued that trial juries also were unfair. He pointed out that black citizens were seldom chosen to serve.
Garry's pretrial motions argued that the Alameda County grand jury system was unconstitutional, secretive, and prejudiced against minorities and the poor. While Newton recovered from his wound, his attorney, Charles Garry, began his defense with a systematic assault on the grand jury system. Newton was charged with murdering Frey, assaulting Heanes, and kidnapping a man whose car was commandeered for the dash to the hospital. Police found Huey Newton at a nearby hospital with a bullet wound in his abdomen. Minutes later, officers responding to a distress call found Frey bleeding to death and Heanes slumped in his car, seriously wounded. A second officer, Herbert Heanes arrived on the scene. Just before dawn on October 28, 1967, Oakland police Officer John Frey radioed that he was about to stop a "known Black Panther vehicle," a van occupied by two men. The Panthers' political rhetoric and advocacy of armed self-defense against police brutality alarmed many citizens and brought down the aggressive wrath of police departments across the nation. No group brought the racial tensions of the late 1960s into sharper focus than the Black Panther Party For Self Defense. Others were equally certain that the charge was a trumped-up attempt to crush the militant Black Panther Party.
Newton, co-founder and "minister of defense" of the Black Panther Party, had murdered a police officer in cold blood. Defense attorney Charles Garry's use of the voir dire provided a model for choosing juries for racially and politically sensitive trials.īefore any evidence was heard, many Americans believed that Huey P. Newton's 1968 case was technically a murder trial, it was also one of the most politically charged trials of its era. Verdict: Guilty of voluntary manslaughter not guilty of felonious assault kidnapping charge dismissed Crimes Charged: First-degree murder, felonious assault, and kidnappingĭates of Trial: July 15-September 8, 1968
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