Angela Davis: An Autobiography

Jury selection for her trial causes Davis to recall an early encounter with authority at Brandeis. She and a friend were punished for hitchhiking to see New England’s fall foliage and deemed “moral criminals”:

I thought back on that little mock trial that had unfolded more than a decade ago. I felt the same sense of unreality, the feeling that the same sort of game was being played, the contestants with the dangerously obsolete ideas having an unfair advantage (306-07).

There is only one Black woman in the jury pool, and she is eliminated.

The prosecution shifts tactics as the trial begins because the movement to free Davis has successfully promoted the notion that she is a political prisoner. The prosecutor now argues that Davis’s crime was motivated by her love for George and uses their correspondence as evidence. Davis, as co-counsel, makes the opening remarks at her trial. She accuses the state of sexism in claiming that her crime was one of passion. This argument resonates with the women jurors. The prosecution also tries to use Black witnesses against Davis. Otelia Young, Davis’s former neighbor, is called to testify about her contact with Jonathan Jackson, but her statements give no indication that Davis was conspiring with Jackson, as the prosecution hoped.