New Haven Black Panther Trial Transcripts

This collection includes the full transcript of a murder trial that took place in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1971. The state put Black Panther Party leaders Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins on trial in connection with the torture and murder of a suspected informant named Alex Rackley. The case sparked demonstrations, unprecedented security precautions, the longest-ever jury selection process in state history, and national debate over the ability of a black revolutionary to receive a fair trial. The case ended in a mistrial; the state did not keep a copy of the transcript, so researchers since then have had no access to record of the proceedings. In the process of researching a book about the case (Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale and the Redemption of a Killer (Basic Books 2006), New Haven journalist Paul Bass obtained a copy of the full transcript from one of the trial’s court reporters, who had kept it in his basement. A digitized copy of the transcript has been donated to this archive.

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