Biography
Terry Cotton was one of the earliest members of the Black Panther Party, in the same founding-era cohort as Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. By his own account he "was with Lil' Bobby Hutton when he was murdered by the Oakland Police Department on April 6, 1968." Indicted on two counts of attempted murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, he was tried jointly with Donnell Lankford (People v. Lankford and Cotton, No. 42287); both were convicted of assault and acquitted of attempted murder. He remained active in Bay Area revolutionary circles for decades after his release.
The Black Panther identified these incarcerated defendants as awaiting trial arising from the April 6, 1968 Oakland shootout. It reported two attempted-murder and two assault counts. Its reference to one-to-fifteen-year exposure on each count is a possible penalty, not a sentence already imposed. The paper alleged political persecution of the Panthers. The Black Panther, February 13, 1971, original PDF page 9. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/black-panther/06%20no%203%201-20%20feb%2013%201971.pdf#page=9
