Joan Bird

Released
Date of birth:09. 03. 1949
Age:77
Gender:Female
Race:Black
Era:1960s
State:New York
Time Imprisoned:
2 Years 3 Months 26 Days
Support
Black Liberation Black Panther Party Panther 21
Joan Bird

Biography

Joan Bird was a 19-year-old nursing student and Black Panther Party member when she was arrested on January 17, 1969 in connection with a Harlem incident in which NYPD officers exchanged gunfire with three men in a car; she was beaten in custody and the photograph of her bruised face became one of the most widely circulated images of the case. She was charged in the April 2, 1969 Panther 21 indictment as one of two women among the defendants (the other was Afeni Shakur) and was held at the Womens House of Detention in Greenwich Village on $100,000 bail. She was one of the 13 defendants who went to trial and was acquitted with the others on May 13, 1971.

Case

Womens House of Detention (Greenwich Village)
Charges: New York state attempted murder (Jan 17, 1969 Harlem police-shootout incident) and Panther 21 conspiracy counts (April 2, 1969 indictment).
Arrested: Jan 16, 1969
Incarcerated: Jan 16, 1969
Released: May 12, 1971
Sentence: ~2 years pretrial detention at the Womens House of Detention; acquitted by jury, May 13, 1971. Verdict as recorded: No - acquitted by jury, New York Supreme Court, May 13, 1971
Convicted: No — acquitted
Institution State: New York

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