Mulvey Dismisses Charges Against Seale and Huggins

NEW HAVEN, CONN. - A Superior Court judge dismissed charges Tuesday against Balck Panther chairman Bobby G. Seale and Ericka Huggins, because, he said, massive publicity made it impossible to select another jury that would be impartial.

Judge Harold M. Mulvey's ruling came a day after he declared a mistrial in the case against the two Panthers when the jury of five blacks and seven whites reported it was hopelessly deadlocked.

The judge said, "With the massive publicity attendant upon the trial just completed, I find it impossible to believe that an unbiased jury could be selected without superhuman efforts which this count, the state and these defendants should not be called upon either to make or to endure."

Scale and Huggins, a New Haven Panther leader, were charged with capital crimes in the 1969 slaying of another Panther.

Huggius was immediately freed, and she was mobbed by Panther sympathizers as she left the courthouse.

But Seale, who founded the Black Panther party with Huey P. Newton in 1966, remains in custody, still facing a four-year contempt of court sentence stemming from the Chicago Eight conspiracy trial.

Seale's lawyers have appealed the conviction and are waiting for a Chicago judge to set bail.

The trial that ended with a hung jury Monday had taken more than six months. Jury selection alone consumed four of these months.

As Huggins-widow of a slain California Panther leader - stepped out of the courtroom, tears streamed down her cheeks, Panther sympathizers ran through the three-story building, crying, laughing and yelling.

Seale looked happy at the ruling. Later, he gave a clenched first salute - as he has almost daily during the six-month trial - to some 200 supporters waiting outside the court building as state police escorted him to the car that took him to a state prison.

In his ruling, Judge Mulvey said, "I have observed a rather remarkable change in the attitude of these defendants during the time they have been before me, and I don't think it is feigned."