Remembering Fight for Justice for Lee Chol-soo

Yoo Jay-kun explains the process of the trial to demonstrators calling for the freeing of Lee Chol-soo in front of the court in San Francisco.

/ Courtesy of Yoo Jay-kun

By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

Twenty five years ago, a Korean-American immigrant Lee Chol-soo, who was wrongfully convicted for the 1973 killing of a San Francisco gang leader and sentenced to life in prison and then sentenced to death for the self-defense killing of another inmate while in custody, was finally freed.

But the memory of the heartrending struggle for justice to exonerate the innocent individual who served 10 years in prison after being wrongly accusation is deeply etched on Koreans' minds.

A new book ``The Song, We Are Singing Together'' written by Yoo Jay-kun, a former lawmaker and lawyer, unveils the stories

based on the records he wrote of the six-year trial process.

Yoo worked for Lee's exoneration for about six years when he was a law school graduate in the United States, along with Lee Kyung-won known as K.W. Lee, a Korean investigative reporter of the Sacramento Union, a key contributor to the case.

The former lawmaker said that he decided to publish a book about the unfair case of the young innocent boy when he was finally set free in 1983.

But Yoo couldn't do it right after the case's end because, at first, he was afraid that his Christian intent to save the life of an innocent boy without price might be misunderstood as that of a self-seeking politician.

Second, the struggles for justice might be misread as sheer criticism og the U.S. judicial authorities, which could provoke anti-Americanism, he said.

``I decided to release the book now to offer lessons to readers from this case. In the globalized era that polarizes the conflicts between the classes, I think mainstream should turn their eyes to weak and poor minorities. Also, in Korea, which has introduced a U.S.-style law school system, this case would be a good model to inspire many would-be lawyers,'' Yoo told The Korea Times.

He recalled the incident that took place in 1973 when discrimination against immigrants and minorities wa strong in U.S. Anti-Asian racism was particularly high, as it was right after the end of the Vietnam War.

On June 3, 1973, Yip Yee Tak was gunned down in broad daylight in Chinatown. Lee was arrested four days after the incident and convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Worse, while in prison, he was sentenced to death for the self-defense killing of another prisoner Morrison Needham who attacked him.

Reporter K.W. Lee embarked on an investigation of Lee's case in 1977 and created the Free Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee which spurred a national pan-Asian movement that encouraged students, immigrants and other activists to raise money for him to hire new attorneys.

The new attorneys discovered new facts that had been intentionally withheld from Lee about the Chinatown murder case, and contained information about another eyewitness to the 1973 shooting, Steve Morris, who had told police Lee was not the attacker.

The attorneys filed for relief from the court with the new information, alleging that the prosecutor from the Chinatown case had withheld material evidence from Lee's lawyers for a hasty conclusion to the case.

The petition was filed for a writ of habeas corpus to reopen the first murder case on July 7, 1978.

On Aug. 11, 1982, a retrial began and on Sept. 3, the San Francisco County Superior Court jury acquitted Lee of Yip's murder. But he remained incarcerated on the second murder charge.

On Jan. 14, 1983, California's 3rd District Court of Appeal nullified his death sentence for stabbing Needham, citing the trial judge for misdirection of the jury and for allowing hearsay testimony in the death penalty phase of the trial.

On March 28, 1983, San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge K. Peter Saiers released him on a property bond of $236,262. However, the prosecution moved to retry Lee on the prison-killing charge. His co-counsels were able to plea bargain on the Needham case. Chol-soo, who had served nearly ten years in prison, was free.

``Chol-soo had a difficult time at school after immigrating to the U.S. at the age of 12. Speaking no English and with a working single mother, he struggled to fit into his new country. There was no guidance from a Korean counselor to help him at school,'' said Yoo.

Yoo explained that the climate in Chinatown was so tense that there was a lot of straight out execution murders in the streets. Also, it was just before the mayoral election and from the mayor's office that the case be quickly resolved because of all the numerous killings that had happened before, and because there were no arrests in those murders.

He said that the book is intended to inform the Korean community in the U.S. about the rights of citizens. ``I held numerous lectures in 250 churches and student unions and the Korean immigrant community meetings to tell them about the Chol-soo case and urge them to know their rights as U.S. citizens,'' he said.

Yoo said that Chol-soo was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the two cases due to the unfavorable social circumstances in the U.S.

But ironically he was acquitted thanks to the U.S. judicial system which has habeas corpus, plea bargaining and the jury system, which doesn't exist in Korean judicial system.

Habeas corpus is a legal action in which a person can seek relief from the unlawful detention in the case of the appearance of the real criminal or material evidence. But the chances of reopening cases are extremely low in retrials. However, in Chol-soo's case, the enormous efforts of the attorney team and the Korean community paved the way for the retrial.

Yoo said after Chol-soo was released, the case left a legacy in American society. The state stipulates a new rule that Californian public schools with more than 100 immigrant students should hire a bilingual counselor for them. In the Korean community, many students wanted to be human rights lawyers. Also, the Korean American Coalition (KAC) was established with the remains of the funds collected.

``Law is a necessary evil. It's a social control mechanism. But the thing is how the roles of jurists, law enforcement personnel and lawmakers work well with good sense,'' said Yoo.

Chol-soo is now 57-years-old. Even after the release, he struggled with loneliness and hardship. He is currently living in San Francisco and remains single and works as an anti-drug campaign lecturer under a federal government program.

chungay@koreatimes.co.kr