Biography
Rose Marie Smith was one of the six women of the New Haven Black Panther chapter arrested in 1969 over the Alex Rackley murder and prosecuted as part of the "New Haven Nine." Contemporaneous reporting described the evidence against her as scanty, yet she was held without bail at the Niantic women's prison during the 1970-71 proceedings. Her detention, like that of the other low-level New Haven women, became a rallying point in the "Free Bobby, Free Ericka" campaign, and she was never convicted.
Case
Connecticut Correctional Institution, Niantic (state prison for women)