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Daniel Hamm

Released
Gender:Male
Race:Black
Era:1960s
State:New York
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Civil Rights Police Accountability Harlem Six
Daniel Hamm

Biography

One of the "Harlem Six" — Black teenagers arrested in May 1964 and charged with the murder of clothing-store owner Margit Sugar, 12 days after the April 17, 1964 "Little Fruit Stand Riot" police-beating disturbance in Harlem. The case became a landmark frame-up exposé: independent journalists documented that the confessions were coerced by NYPD detectives. James Baldwin published "A Report from Occupied Territory" defending the six in 1966.

Photo credit

Daniel Hamm. Photograph reproduced from the 1980 docudrama The Torture of Mothers and identified in Andy Beta's Pitchfork article Blood and Echoes. No AI editing.

The May 30, 1966 Militant identifies Daniel Hamm as one of the youths arrested in the Harlem fruit-stand incident twelve days before the April 29, 1964 murder, resolving the date to April 17. The article explicitly describes hours of station-house detention and beatings. This is a separate earlier episode from the later murder prosecution; an actual release day and full duration are not supplied.

Original contemporary source 1.

Cases

Charges: First-degree murder of Margit Sugar (April 29, 1964 Harlem clothing-store killing).
Arrested: May 1, 1964
Sentenced: Apr 8, 1965
Released: 1974
Sentence: Originally sentenced to life imprisonment. Resentenced on May 11, 1971: 10-20 years for first-degree manslaughter, consecutive to 5-15 years for first-degree attempted murder; a 5-15-year attempted-robbery term ran concurrently with the attempted-murder term. Combined sentence: 15-35 years. A planned December 14, 1972 parole release was rescinded before release. Released on parole in 1974; the exact release date remains unverified.
Charges: Arrest and police-station detention during Harlem fruit-stand incident; specific charge not established
Arrested: Apr 17, 1964
Incarcerated: Apr 17, 1964