Editing Angela Davis (section)

==Arrest and trial==
{{See also|Marin County Civic Center attacks}}
Davis was a supporter of the [[Soledad Brothers]], three inmates who were accused and charged with the killing of a prison guard at [[Correctional Training Facility|Soledad Prison]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Angela Davis Biography: Academic, Civil Rights Activist, Scholar, Women's Rights Activist|url=http://www.biography.com/people/angela-davis-9267589|website=biography|publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC|access-date=May 6, 2015|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175939/https://www.biography.com/people/angela-davis-9267589|url-status=live}}</ref>

On August 7, 1970, heavily armed 17-year-old African-American high-school student [[Jonathan P. Jackson|Jonathan Jackson]], whose brother was [[George Jackson (activist)|George Jackson]], one of the three Soledad Brothers, gained control of a courtroom in [[Marin County, California]]. He armed the black defendants and took Judge [[Harold Haley]], Deputy District Attorney [[Gary W. Thomas]], and three female jurors as hostages.<ref name="Trial-1">{{cite book|last=Aptheker|first=Bettina|title=The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis|year=1997|publisher=Cornell University Press}}</ref><ref name="Register-Guard">{{cite news|agency=Associated Press|title=Search broadens for Angela Davis|newspaper=Eugene Register-Guard|date=August 17, 1970|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4BkRAAAAIBAJ&pg=6482%2C3554926|access-date=September 14, 2009}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> As Jackson transported the hostages and three black defendants away from the courtroom, one of the defendants, James McClain, shot at the police. The police returned fire.<ref name="nytimes-acquittal"/>

The judge and three of the black men were killed in the melee. One of the jurors, the prosecutor, and one of the attackers, [[Ruchell Magee]], were injured. Although the judge was shot in the head with a blast from a shotgun, he also suffered a chest wound from a bullet that may have been fired from outside the van. Evidence during the trial showed that either could have been fatal.<ref name="nytimes-acquittal">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-acquit.html|title=Angela Davis Acquitted on All Charges|newspaper=The New York Times|first=Earl|last=Caldwell|author-link=Earl Caldwell (journalist)|date=June 5, 1972|access-date=February 14, 2017|archive-date=February 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180221174350/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-acquit.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Davis had purchased several of the firearms Jackson used in the attack,<ref name="Smithsonian-Archive">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/harvard-new-home-angela-davis-papers-180968191/|title=Angela Davis' Archive Comes to Harvard|last1=Treviño|first1=Julissa|magazine=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|date=February 16, 2018|access-date=October 4, 2018|archive-date=October 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004230117/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/harvard-new-home-angela-davis-papers-180968191/|url-status=live}}</ref> including the shotgun used to shoot Haley, which she bought at a San Francisco pawn shop two days before the incident.<ref name="Register-Guard"/><ref name="nytimes-shotgun">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/18/archives/a-shotgun-that-miss-davis-purchased-is-linked-to-the-fatal-shooting.html|title=A Shotgun That Miss Davis Purchased Is Linked to the Fatal Shooting of Judge|last1=Caldwell|first1=Earl|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 18, 1972|access-date=October 4, 2018|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175932/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/18/archives/a-shotgun-that-miss-davis-purchased-is-linked-to-the-fatal-shooting.html|url-status=live}}</ref> She was also found to have been corresponding with one of the inmates involved.<ref>{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Deborah Gray|last2=Bay|first2=Mia|last3=Martin|first3=Waldo E.|title=Freedom on My Mind|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|isbn=978-0-312-64884-8|page=725|date=December 14, 2012}}</ref>

Davis had befriended George and Jonathan Jackson doing work attempting to free the Soledad Brothers. She had communicated frequently with George Jackson over letters and worked extensively with Jonathan Jackson in her work with the Soledad Brothers Defense Committee. She had grown close with the Jackson family in general during this time while working with them and speaking at events together.<ref name=":2" />

[[File:Boston 1970 protest against the Vietnam War.jpg|thumb|[[Protest against the Vietnam War]], 1970]]
As California considers "all persons concerned in the commission of a crime,&nbsp;... whether they directly commit the act constituting the offense, or aid and abet in its commission,&nbsp;... are principals in any crime so committed", Davis was charged with "aggravated kidnapping and first degree murder in the death of Judge Harold Haley", and Marin County Superior Court Judge Peter Allen Smith issued a warrant for her arrest. Hours after the judge issued the warrant on August 14, 1970, a massive attempt to find and arrest Davis began. On August 18, four days after the warrant was issued, the FBI director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] listed Davis on the [[FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives|FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List]]; she was the third woman and the 309th person to be listed.<ref name="Trial-1"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Biography|work=Davis (Angela) Legal Defense Collection, 1970–1972|url=http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/ead/scm/scmdavisa|access-date=June 14, 2013|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175932/http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/ead/scm/scmdavisa|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Angela Yvonne Davis Wanted Poster.jpg|thumb|Davis wanted by the FBI on a federal warrant issued August 15, 1970, for [[Fugitive Felon Act|unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.]]]] Soon after, Davis became a fugitive and fled California. According to her autobiography, during this time she hid in friends' homes and moved at night. On October 13, 1970, FBI agents found her at a Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in New York City.<ref name="NY Hotel">{{cite news|last=Charleton|first=Linda|title=F.B.I Seizes Angela Davis in Motel Here|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-fbi.html|access-date=April 26, 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 28, 2011|archive-date=February 1, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130201044128/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-fbi.html|url-status=live}}</ref> President [[Richard Nixon|Richard M. Nixon]] congratulated the FBI on its "capture of the dangerous terrorist Angela Davis."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis|last=Aptheker, Bettina|date=January 21, 2014|publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9780801470141|oclc=979577423}}</ref>

On January 5, 1971, Davis appeared at Marin County Superior Court and declared her innocence before the court and nation: "I now declare publicly before the court, before the people of this country that I am innocent of all charges which have been leveled against me by the state of California." [[John Abt]], [[general counsel]] of the [[Communist Party USA]], was one of the first attorneys to represent Davis for her alleged involvement in the shootings.<ref name=abt>{{cite book|last1=Abt|first1=John|author-link1=John Abt|last2=Myerson|first2=Michael|title=Advocate and Activist: Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9REaIPPh4k4C&pg=PA273|page=273|year=1993|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana, Illinois|isbn=978-0-252-02030-8|access-date=March 18, 2023|archive-date=April 4, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404143542/https://books.google.com/books?id=9REaIPPh4k4C&pg=PA273|url-status=live}}</ref>

While being held in the [[New York Women's House of Detention|Women's Detention Center]], Davis was initially segregated from other prisoners, in [[solitary confinement]]. With the help of her legal team, she obtained a federal [[court order]] to get out of the segregated area.<ref>{{cite book|last=Davis|first=Angela Yvonne|title=Angela Davis: An Autobiography|date=March 1989|publisher=International Publishers|location=New York City|isbn=0-7178-0667-7|chapter=Nets}}</ref>

[[File:An Evening with Angela Davis flyer.tif|thumb|Flyer advertising a celebrity fundraiser for Davis's legal defense, featuring [[Ray Barretto]], [[Jerry Butler]], [[Carmen McRae]], [[Pete Seeger]], [[the Voices of East Harlem]], and [[Ossie Davis]]]]

[[File:¡LIBERTAD PARA LOS PRISONEROS POLITICAS!.jpg|thumb|1971 poster by [[Rupert García]] urging freedom for political prisoners and depicting Angela Davis]]

Across the nation, thousands  began organizing a movement to gain her release. In New York City, black writers formed a committee called the Black People in Defense of Angela Davis. By February 1971, more than 200 local committees in the United States, and 67 in foreign countries, worked to free Davis from jail. [[John Lennon]] and [[Yoko Ono]] contributed to this campaign with the song "[[Some Time in New York City|Angela]]".<ref>Blaney, John. 2005 ''John Lennon: Listen to this Book''. PaperJukebox. p. 117</ref> In 1972, after a 16-month incarceration, the state allowed her release on bail from the county jail.<ref name="Trial-1"/> On February 23, 1972, Rodger McAfee, a dairy farmer from [[Fresno, California]], paid her $100,000 ({{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=100000|start_year=1972|r=-2|fmt=eq}}) bail with the help of Steve Sparacino, a wealthy business owner. The [[United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America|United Presbyterian Church]] paid some of her legal defense expenses.<ref name="Trial-1"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-campaign.html|title=The Campaign to Free Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee|work=The New York Times|date=June 27, 1971|author=Sol Stern|author-link=Sol Stern|access-date=February 14, 2017|archive-date=March 31, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331164926/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-campaign.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

A defense motion for a change of venue was granted, and the trial was moved to Santa Clara County. On June 4, 1972, after 13 hours of deliberations,<ref name="nytimes-acquittal" /> the [[all-white jury]] returned a verdict of [[acquittal|not guilty]].<ref name="nytimes-acquittal" /> After the verdict, one juror, Ralph DeLange, made the [[Black Power salute]] to a crowd of spectators, which he later told reporters was to show "a unity of opinion for all oppressed people". Ten jurors later attended victory celebrations with the defense.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/693589-angela-davis-aquittal.html|title=5 Factors Noted in Angela Davis Innocent Verdict|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=June 28, 2024|archive-date=January 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170124175051/http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/693589-angela-davis-aquittal.html|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> The fact that she owned the guns used in the crime was judged insufficient to establish her role in the plot. She was represented by Howard Moore Jr. and [[Leo Branton Jr.]], who hired psychologists to help the defense determine who in the jury pool might favor their arguments, a [[scientific jury selection|technique]] that has since become more common. They also hired experts to discredit the reliability of eyewitness accounts.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Justice in the Round: The Trial of Angela Davis|last=Major, Reginald|date=January 1, 1973|publisher=Third Press |isbn=9780893880521}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|first=William|last=Yardley|title=Leo Branton Jr., Activists' Lawyer, Dies at 91|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=27 April 2013|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/us/leo-branton-jr-who-defended-angela-davis-dies-at-91.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=6 August 2023|archive-date=March 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331175934/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/us/leo-branton-jr-who-defended-angela-davis-dies-at-91.html|url-status=live}}</ref>