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(Sunday, June 4, 1972, 12:35 p.m. PDT) — After just 13 hours of deliberations, an all-white jury in San Jose, California, found African-American activist Angela Davis not guilty today of murder, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy charges stemming from a 1970 California courthouse shootout in which a judge and three other people were killed.

The jury returned its verdict at 12:35 p.m. PDT, clearing the 28-year-old former instructor at UCLA of all charges against her following a 14-week trial. The announcement touched off demonstrations so emotional that Judge Richard E. Arnason threatened to clear the courtroom.

Davis, who had shown little emotion through the 13 weeks of the trial, broke into sobs after the last verdict had been read. “This is the happiest day of my life,” she later exclaimed.

The charges against her were lodged late in August 1970, shortly after Jonathan Jackson, 17, smuggled guns into a Marin County courtroom in San Rafael, Calif, and armed three black convicts. They then attempted to escape by using a judge, an assistant district attorney, and three women jurors as hostages.

The judge was taken hostage with a shotgun taped to his neck. He died in the getaway vans outside the civic center along with Jackson and two of the three convicts who participated in the escape. There was always a question as to how the shooting began and in the evidence presented during the trial, this remained a question.

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Although the judge was shot in the head with a blast from the shotgun, he also suffered a chest wound from a bullet that may have been fired from outside the van. Evidence during the trial showed, however, that either could have been fatal.

Davis was connected with the case when it was learned that the guns smuggled into the court were registered in her name. She was sought by the authorities nationwide, and she was placed on the “10 most wanted” list that is published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

It was widely rumored that she had left the country but on Oct. 13, 1970, she was arrested in a New York City motel. She was extradited to California two months later and kept in maximum security imprisonment at the Marin County Jail as pretrial proceedings began to take shape.

In the fall of 1971, Davis was granted a change of venue. The trial was shifted from Marin to Santa Clara County. The defense had asked that the trial be held in San Francisco but that request was refused.

Davis was granted bail last February, five days after the California Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. Bail had been denied her on the ground that persons accused of capital offenses are not entitled to release.

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In the trial, the state argued that she plotted the Marin County escape attempt along with Jonathan Jackson and that she supplied him with the guns that she had purchased.

Albert Harris Jr., the prosecutor, said that the purpose of the escape attempt was not simply to free the prisoners but to take hostages. The hostages, he contended, would be used to extort the release from prison of the Soledad Brothers, three black convicts in whose defense Miss Davis had been intimately involved.

Harris argued in the court that Davis was deeply in love with George Jackson, the best known of the three convicts. Davis conceded that she was in love with Jackson but denied the existence of any plot. Witnesses testified that the guns she bought were for the defense of the Soledad Brothers defense headquarters.

Before the trial began there was much discussion as to whether Davis could get a fair trial in Santa Clara County. The defense was particularly bitter because there were no blacks on the jury.

But the jurors were loudly cheered as they left the courtroom today. Later, Davis met them in the press room and hugged each member.