Joan Little was born in Washington, North Carolina back in 1953. She was the eldest of six siblings, she was forced to care for them and four half-siblings as well. As a teenager, she worked in the tobacco industry and was a waitress. Little’s problems with law enforcement began in 1968. Her mother asked a judge to declare her a truant an committed her to the Dobbs Farm Training School in Kinston, North Carolina.
She escaped and lived with relatives in Philadelphia, three weeks after graduating from high school she developed a thyroid problem and returned to North Carolina for an operation. Starting in 1973, she was arrested on a variety of charges from theft to breaking and entering, along with possession of stolen good and possession of a sawed-off-shotgun. On 27, August 1974, a police officer discovered the body of a jailer Clarence Alligood on her bunk dead at the Beaufort County jail. He had suffered stab wounds to the temple and heat from an icepick.
She was charged with first-degree murder. In her trial it was brought out that Clarence had sexually assaulted other females in return for favors. She was the first woman in United States history to be acquitted for using self-defense and deadly force to resist sexual assault. Her case also has become classic in legal circles as a pioneering instance of the application of scientific jury selection.
NW Arkansas, come for a visit, stay for a lifetime.
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