According to Wikipedia, this incident took place in 1974. The linked article seems to have been written in 1975, before the outcome of Little’s trial was known, and republished in 2002. The trial focused national attention on the issues of a woman’s right to defend herself from rape, the validity of capital punishment racial and sexual inequality in the criminal justice system, and the rights of prisoners in general. It took the jury less than an hour and a half to find Joan Little not guilty.

Although Little received a not guilty verdict, she still had to go back to prison to serve out the remainder of her existing sentence for breaking and entering. Her prison term was extended after another escape, but she was released on parole in 1979.