American Justice On Trial: People v. Newton

The award-winning film version of this 'world-changing true story' was featured by PBS across country during Black History Month 2025. The film highlighted the startling relevance of a riveting trial more than half a century ago when a black revolutionary, Black Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton, faced execution for the death of a white policeman -- with totally unexpected results. This audiobook was narrated by Rua, the same actor who voiced Huey Newton in the documentary. It allows listeners to take a ringside seat at the case that transformed the traditional all white male 'jury of one's peers' to a jury truly drawn from a cross-section of the community, including women and minorities. The book also provides a rare look behind the scenes into life-or-death jury deliberations and features comments from key trial participants and observers. Pioneering television journalist Belva Davis vividly described the participants in that historic trial: 'The Newton trial cast of characters would be hard to put together for a Hollywood film

the defense attorney, the prosecutor, the jury foreman, the makeup of the jury, Newton himself.' Huey's older brother Melvin Newton captured the essence of that historic trial, inspiring the book's title: 'The prosecution represents the state -- the People of California vs. Huey Newton was putting Huey Newton on trial. As it turned out, [my brother] Huey put the United States on trial.'

Award-winning author Lise Pearlman (www.lisepearlman.com) is a retired judge and the country's leading expert on the 1968 Newton trial. She appeared in Stanley Nelson's top-rated 2015 documentary 'The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution' and created the award-winning 2022 film project for which she served as co-producer, American Justice on Trial recently renamed 'In the Crosshairs.' www.justicemovie.com