In one of the “trials of the century" and with great relevance to today, Black Panthers leader Huey P. Newton faced the death penalty for killing a white policeman in a pre-dawn car stop in 1968 Oakland. While Newton and his maverick attorneys daringly indicted racism in the courts and the country, and a groundbreaking jury led by a historic black foreman deliberated Newton’s fate, the streets of Oakland and the nation were poised to explode if the jury came back with murder.