Joan Little was a young Black woman who made history in 1975 when she was acquitted of murder after killing a white prison guard in self-defense against sexual assault. Here are the key details about her case:
- In 1974, Joan Little was serving a sentence for breaking and entering at Beaufort County Jail in North Carolina.
- On August 27, 1974, white prison guard Clarence Alligood was found dead in Little's cell, stabbed with an ice pick. Little had escaped.
- Little turned herself in a week later and claimed she had killed Alligood in self-defense when he tried to rape her.
