Joan Little Can Smile: Murder trial defendant Joan Little said today she can manage "a smile now that the trial is nearing the end." The state rested its case shortly after noon. Miss Little is shown returning to the courtroom, where her attorneys are asking for dismissal of charges against her, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Joan Little (pronounced "Jo Ann") (born 1953) is a black woman charged for the 1974 murder of Clarence Alligood, a white prison guard at Beaufort County Jail in Washington, North Carolina. Little's trial made her a cause célèbre of the Civil Rights, Feminist, and Anti-death Penalty Movements. She was the first woman in United States history to be acquitted using the defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault. Her case has become classic in legal circles as a pioneering instance of the application of scientific jury selection.

On recto: typewritten title and date.
On verso: manuscript title, date stamp and library stamp.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Civil Rights Movements
• Clarence Alligood
• Courthouses
• Injustice
• Joan Little
• Lawyers
• Murder
• Racial Discrimination
• Raleigh
• Rape
• Self defense
• Trials

• Image Dimensions: 9 1/4 x 6 1/2 in. (23.5 x 16.51 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Sheet Dimensions: 9 7/8 x 8 in. (25.08 x 20.32 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen