Bunce, Robin, and Paul Field. "Ten Years on Bail: ‘Darcus Outta Jail’." Darcus Howe: A Political Biography. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014. 171–186. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 25 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781472544407.ch-013>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 25 September 2021, 08:58 UTC. Copyright © Robin Bunce and Paul Field 2014. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 1 3 Ten Years on Bail: ‘ Darcus Outta Jail ’ For 10 years, Howe tumbled from one case to another. Th e arrests came thick and fast, as did the charges. Actual Bodily Harm, Th reatening Behaviour, Wilful Obstruction and Obstructing the Police; as far as the authorities were concerned, there was no end to his crimes. By and large, juries saw things diff erently, and Howe was acquitted at the end of fi ve of his six cases. Police interest in Howe is easy to explain. Howe picked up the theme of police corruption and racism in Black Dimension and never let it drop. What is more, he had bruised a few egos by besting offi cers in the Mangrove trial. Many of Howe ’ s arrests indicate that elements in the Met, and later in the Manchester Constabulary, would seize on any excuse and go so far as fabricating evidence to even the score. Special Branch certainly kept tabs on Howe. Even aft er his acquittal in the Mangrove case, they continued to keep him under surveillance. According to a Special Branch report from 1972: HOWE, is regarded as one of the leading black militants in London. He is a writer of black extremist literature and has taken part in many Black Power activities. He is prominent in the aff airs of the Black Panther Movement, although recently he has been critical of the present leadership. (NA HO 325/143) With this reputation it is no surprise that he would have trouble with the law for some time to come. ‘ Th e Old Bailey Th ree ’ Th e Mangrove trial was one Black Power trial among many. Th e pages of the National and International News Bulletin and the Black People ’ s News Service were full of court reports of ‘ frame-ups ’ that ended up at the Old Bailey. As a result, Howe and other black radicals were oft en at the court, reporting, DDarcus.indbarcus.indb 117171 110/18/20130/18/2013 66:44:04:44:04 PPMM 172 Darcus Howe protesting or giving evidence in one case or another. Th e case of the Oval House Four was no exception, and on 20 June 1971, Howe was arrested aft er a scuffl e between demonstrators and police outside the Old Bailey (TO, 2 – 9 October 1972). Th ree protesters were arrested, facing, between them, six charges of Assault and Actual Bodily Harm. Th e ‘ Old Bailey Th ree ’ comprised Howe, Olive Morris and Abdul Macintosh. Morris later became something of a Brixton folk hero. She was an active member of the Panthers and ‘ a genuine rabble rouser ’ in Howe ’ s words, a founding member of the Brixton Black Women ’ s Group (ROC 2009: 5) and a woman who turned squatting into an art form (Ibid., 40). Th e committal hearing took place at the Guildhall in January 1972 with the full trial at the Old Bailey starting at the end of October ( TO, 2 – 9 October 1972). In terms of defence strategy, the trial of the ‘ Old Bailey Th ree ’ was a partial rerun of the Mangrove trial. Howe put in a series of pre-trial applications to strengthen his position. He requested a tape recorder, so that he could scrutinize the proceedings; to have a ‘ McKenzie ’ and ‘ a fair representation of black people on the Jury ’ (UC DHP Box VII/4). Finally, he requested the names, addresses and occupations of the potential jurors. Th ese requests were granted, and Louise London, a law student, acted as Howe ’ s McKenzie. As in the Mangrove case, the defendants used their right of challenge to infl uence the make-up of the jury. Consequently, all four of the black citizens in the jury pool made it onto the jury. Th e defendants selected the remaining jurors ‘ on a class basis ’ (Ibid.), favouring candidates who, according to the information obtained from the court, lived in working-class areas or had working-class jobs. Howe set out his reasoning for selecting jurors from the white working class in a letter to friends in Trinidad dated January 1973: Our decision to have white working class jurors needs to be explained. As a class they are presently involved in a continuous struggle against capital and the political regime. At such moments in history sections of the class acquire instincts and attitudes which they are without in times of social peace. Consequently there exists a willingness to explore areas hitherto considered taboo. Such as the bringing on of verdicts which in essence condemn police malpractice and corruption. (Ibid.) Finally, the three also looked into the background of the presiding judge. Th rough conversations with friendly barristers, Howe learnt that John Fitzgerald Marnan Q.C. had been Crown counsel within the Minister of Legal Aff airs in Kenya between 1958 and 1959, where he had prosecuted members of the Mau DDarcus.indbarcus.indb 117272 110/18/20130/18/2013 66:44:04:44:04 PPMM Ten Years on Bail: ‘Darcus Outta Jail’ 173 Mau ( Kenya Gazette , 2 September 1958). He subsequently transferred to the Federal Supreme Court in the West Indies (West Indies Gazette , 1 January 1959). Howe ’ s initial impression was that the Marnan, in contrast to Clarke, was ‘ mild, courteous and accommodating ’. In spite of this, Howe was not prepared to let down his guard. Outright confrontation had failed the state in the Mangrove case, perhaps they hoped to achieve more with a new strategy. Aft er the jury was empanelled, Howe made one last request, that each juror should be given a notebook and a pen so that they could make notes as the trial progressed. Th e judge ’ s response indicated that he too had been doing some pre-trial homework. He denied the request, appealing to Howe ’ s experience as a public speaker: ‘ Mr Howe, you are a man who is accustomed to speak to large numbers of people. Th is experience, you will appreciate, teaches you that if your audience is taking notes while you are speaking, they tend to miss some of what you are saying ’ (UC DHP Box VII/4). Th e trial began on 30 October 1972, in Court number 3, with Howe defending himself. Th e prosecution ’ s case comprised the testimony of nine police offi cers. Bizarrely, their case was riddled with inconsistencies. In Morris ’ s case, there were divergent accounts of her footwear, no trivial matter as she was accused of kicking and injuring an offi cer. In Howe ’ s case, the inconsistencies were even starker. He was accused of assaulting Inspector Murrell, but when Murrell took the stand, he fl atly denied that the assault had ever taken place. PC Lomas accused Howe of biting his fi nger. However, under cross-examination, Howe demonstrated from Lomas ’ own notebook that the bite was infl icted by a woman. Howe summed up his approach to cross-examination shortly aft er the trial thus: My attitude in cross examination was informed by the fact that their entire story was a pack of lies, and I made no bones about it. I accused them of having no respect for the truth, of being liars and cheats, etc. (UC DHP Box VII/4) Lawyers representing Morris and Macintosh took a more circumspect approach. Even so, as the prosecution rested, it was clear that their case had disintegrated. As a result, the judge instructed the jury to retire and reach a verdict on the charges facing Morris and Macintosh relating to the assault of PC Reid. Although he provided no formal direction, it was clear that he was asking the jury to fi nd Morris and Macintosh innocent prior to their defence. Conspicuously absent was any direction regarding Howe. Th e jury found in favour of the defendants, Macintosh was discharged, Morris faced two further charges. DDarcus.indbarcus.indb 117373 110/18/20130/18/2013 66:44:04:44:04 PPMM 174 Darcus Howe When Howe took the stand, he argued that he had acted lawfully in trying to prevent an illegal arrest. He concluded with the broader political point that ‘ if we as black people turned our backs in the face of such persecution, we would be paying much dearer in the future ’ (Ibid.). Th e prosecution made no headway during their cross-examination. Finally, Howe called four witnesses, two lawyers, an Indian fl ight attendant and a doctor, whose names had been taken aft er the incident by Panthers on the demonstration. Each one stated that the fi ght had been precipitated by the police and that Howe had done nothing wrong. Howe ’ s speech on the fi nal day of the trial, 6 November, addressed the politics of the trial. ‘ I asked the jurors to make a clear social commitment against police corruption by fi nding me not guilty. I added that if they failed to do this, “ then the words of the West Indian poet ring true ” ’ : Sooner or later but must Th e dam going to bust And everyman will break out And who can stop them What force can stop this river of man Who already knows its course.