Presentation & Book Signing The Sky's the Limit, People v. New

Presentation & Book Signing by Judge Lise Pearlman, Ret. THE SKY’S THE LIMIT People v. Newton The REAL Trial of the 20th century?

An early morning shootout between Black Panther leader Huey Newton and two Oakland policemen put Newton on trial for his life in the volatile summer of 1968. Author Lise Pearlman compares that highly politicized trial to other historic legal battles featuring murder, rape and kidnapping, skeletons in celebrity closets, class warfare, fixing the World Series, evolution versus creationism, abuse of power and political conspiracy. Each “trial of the century” serves as a window into its own era. Should the Newton murder trial rank number one? The accused revolutionary put America itself on trial for 400 years of racism. The defense focused international attention on a superpower rocked by two political assassinations and bitterly divided over the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. At the time, the FBI considered the Panthers the greatest internal threat to America’s security. So did Party spokesman Eldridge Cleaver, who predicted warfare in city streets across the country if Newton were condemned to die. The author contends the jury’s surprising verdict still reverberates today—had it turned out otherwise Barack Obama would likely not be President.