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Robert Rice

Released
Gender:Male
Race:Black
Era:1960s
State:New York
Time Imprisoned:
27 Years 7 Months
Support
Civil Rights Police Accountability Harlem Six
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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.

Case

Charges: First-degree murder of Margit Sugar (April 29, 1964 Harlem clothing-store killing).
Arrested: April 1964
Sentenced: Apr 8, 1965
Incarcerated: April 1964
Released: November 1991
Sentence: Life imprisonment. Custody in this prosecution began in April 1964. The day is left unspecified because accounts differ between April 29 and April 30; May 1 was not retained as an established arrest date. Released in November 1991, according to Carl Suddler, American Studies 57:1/2 (2018), p. 73 and note 45, citing New York correctional records. The exact release day remains unverified.