Biography
Robert “RT” Taylor was a New York Black liberation organizer and the son of activist Viola Plummer. He was arrested on October 18, 1984 as a New York 8+ defendant and prosecuted under RICO for alleged conspiracies involving bank expropriations and prison escapes. The jury acquitted the defendants of the principal RICO conspiracy charges in August 1985, while returning weapons-possession convictions. Taylor was arrested again with Abdul Haqq and Arthur Barnes in 1987 and convicted of six state weapons-possession counts in 1988. He remained imprisoned until 1992 and later served in the December 12th Movement’s international work.
January 1985 civil-contempt custody
The June 1985 defense publication reports the seven original defendants other than Coltrane Chimurenga remanded January 29, 1985 for refusing physical samples. This distinct civil-contempt detention is recorded separately from the October 1984 arrest and subsequent criminal verdict. Actual January remand discharge remains unknown; no police rearrest or continuous custody through the later trial is inferred. The initial seven are identified from the article's named October arrestees, not from its group-photo caption, which substitutes Jose Rios for Chimurenga.
Source: Death to the Klan, June 1985, printed pages 8-9 (PDF pages 9 and 8). Complete relevant pages and captions visually checked. Existing identified photo retained.
1980s custody-date audit: initial detention
The original appellate opinion dates the eight defendants arrest and initial detention October 18, 1984. The district-court caption identifies Robert Taylor and Judge Robert L. Carter. These primary records correct the previous October 17 dates and Duffy attribution. The first bail-discharge day remains unknown; the separately recorded January contempt detention is not combined across a possible bail interval. United States v. Chimurenga, 760 F.2d 400; 609 F. Supp. 1066.
Sundiata Acoli’s retrospective history individually identifies Robert “R.T.” Taylor with Arthur Majeed Barnes and Abdul Haqq Muhammad as arrested by New York state troopers during an upstate traffic stop on July 16, 1987, and subsequently imprisoned on weapons-possession convictions. This dates the arrest in the state weapons case, not the earlier New York Eight federal case. It does not independently establish an exact prison admission or continuous custody until 1992.
The Fall 1990 Write Through the Walls directory individually lists this prisoner under historical identifier 10376-054. This dated source-specific identifier fills the previously blank number field; the listing supplies no new admission, release or completed custody duration. The contact location is historical and does not establish current imprisonment.
