Career
Sams turned state"s evidence in return for a reduced charge of second-degree murder. He testified that, acting under direct orders from national party leader Bobby Seale, he arranged for the kidnapping of Rackley to Panther headquarters in New Haven, where Rackley was tortured for two days then transported to the marshlands of Middlefield, Connecticut, where he was shot by Warren Kimbro and Lonnie McLucas on Sams" orders. According to author Hugh Pearson, who wrote the book The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America:
Neither Kimbro nor McLucas corroborated Sam"s testimony regarding Seale"s involvement.
The jury deadlocked on the charges against Seale and Black Panther leader Ericka Huggins, and the charges against both were dropped.
