An icepick, a corpse and 2 very different explanations

On this day in 1975: In a case that has become a national cause celebre, an evenly biracial Raleigh jury acquits black defendant Joan Little in the icepick stabbing slaying of white jailer Clarence Alligood.

Defense attorneys — including civil rights stalwarts William Kunstler and Morris Dees — argued that Alligood, 62, had attempted to sexually assault the 21-year-old Little, who was serving time in the Beaufort County Jail for breaking and entering. The prosecution contended that Alligood had been killed in an escape plot.

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