Terry Cotton

Terry Cotton was one of the earliest members of the Black Panther Party, in the same founding-era cohort as Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. By his own account he "was with Lil' Bobby Hutton when he was murdered by the Oakland Police Department on April 6, 1968." Indicted on two counts of attempted murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, he was tried jointly with Donnell Lankford (People v. Lankford and Cotton, No. 42287); both were convicted of assault and acquitted of attempted murder. He remained active in Bay Area revolutionary circles for decades after his release.