As part of the 2020 Mugshot Series in honour of our year of incarceration.
 
On 3rd May 1969, rock legend Jimi Hendrix was arrested, tried and acquitted in Canada for drug possession at the height of his career. Customs agents at Toronto International Airport detained Hendrix after finding heroin and hashish in his luggage and he faced up to 20 years in prison. Defence Attorney John O'Driscoll raised doubts about whether the narcotics belonged to Hendrix, who had no drug paraphernalia in his luggage or needle tracks on his arms. After a trial that lasted three days, the jury deliberated for 8 hours before returning a not guilty verdict, acquitting Hendrix of both charges. Two weeks after the arrest, Hendrix told a friend that his fear of needles discouraged him from using heroin. Both of Hendrix's bandmates, later stated that they had been warned about a planned drug bust the day before flying to Toronto and they believed that drugs had been planted in Hendrix's bag. Conspiracy theorists suggest that Hendrix had been set up as part of a wide-scale crackdown on rock musicians by right-wing government forces to stop the threat that rock and roll represented at that time.