The weather today in San Francisco is chilly, clear and I feel like writing as a storm is brewing for later and we just finished 6 days of storms and floods in the Bay Area.
We did move to Lido Island, not right on the Balboa Bay, but a neat little house in the middle of the street between the North and South bay front and it was terrific. My GI house in Northridge was put up for sale, but no takers, so I just let it go back to the lender as we were not going back to the heat and wind, lawn mowing, gardening, watering and all the other requirements of home ownership, thank you. Forgot to mention that when living in Northridge, my wife wanted a dog, so we looked around, no little dog for me, found a pure bred German Shepherd female, light-colored and a wonderful companion, a protector and smart, which was the beginning of a series of Shepherds, male and female over a period of time. I loved that dog, named Duchess, and she was part of the family, accompanied us, of course, to the beach area and all over. No problem getting to work: LA Civic Center downtown LA by Southern Pacific Railway from Santa Ana, a short ride directly to Union Station, located about two and one half blocks to the Hall of Justice. A 40 minute, great train ride in the AM and back in the P.M. Would you believe the cost for a round trip was 80 cents? (couldn’t drive and park for anything close to that bargain.)
Well, I have devoted a lot of space to DA work, but I want you to know, I was considered a very good defense attorney when I finally developed my practice in Orange County. George Porter, who was a very good criminal defense attorney with an office in the city of Ontario, servicing San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties, got a brilliant idea of creating a statewide criminal defense organization, and about 40 years ago contacted a few prominent attorneys, such as Ephraim Margolis from San Francisco (Ephraim was also Israeli and represented the State of Israel in matters involving American-Israeli relations,) Charles Garry, a famous labor, criminal defense and civil rights attorney, who stood up to the Congressional Unamerican Committee in their witch-hunt against Hollywood so-called communists, Paul Fitzgerald, a big time criminal defense attorney from LA., Chuck Sevilla, who with his partner, John Cleary, from San Diego, well there was no one better than they as a pair or as individuals. All of the aforementioned eventually became presidents of what is known today as “California Attorneys for Criminal Justice.” (CACJ) From a small group, the organization has grown from a handful of defense attorneys to over two thousand members today. Among other things, such as legal briefings, case analysis, a law magazine, two seminars a year, one in San Francisco in the winter and one in LA in the summer, plus special seminars on various special subjects, such as death penalty cases, DUIs, Forensic evidence and so forth.
OK, why talk about CACJ? Well, as I said, some people thought I knew what I was doing as a defense attorney. Every year the organization honors a few people with an acknowledgement and recognition of their contribution to the criminal justice system. This year, I was awarded “The Charles Garry Award” on December 10th at the CACJ luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Embarcadero, which stated on the crystal award to me:
TWO THOUSAND SIXTEEN CHARLES R. GARRY AWARD MARSHALL MANNE SCHULMAN, ESQ FOR YOUR COMITTMENT TO SOCIAL JUSTICE AND BEING A TRAIL BLAZER FOR GENERATIONS OF ATTORNEYS
Other awards that day went to a journalist, a former State Senator and also two members of the State Assembly.
Now to the meat of it. Charles Garry was about as liberal and left-wing as one can get. It was ironic that I received an award in his name, as Charlie really did not care for me particularly based upon my DA days, and probably from when we first met, and Charlie was either the fourth or 5th president of CACJ, and violently opposed to the death penalty and was aware of my existence primarily based on one of his contacts, either as a client or with some contact with Ruchel Magee.
I first saw Ruchel Magee in 1963 where he was charged with a cheap robbery of a young guy in south LA. Looking at the case, I offered Ruchell, through his attorney, a plea to 2nd degree robbery, and would dismiss the kidnapping charge which was tagged onto the charge as a second count. Kidnapping or robbery with incidental movement carried life imprisonment. Basically Ruchell apparently told his attorney “no deal,” so we went to trial. The trial was not particularly noteworthy, except for Ruchell’s courtroom outbursts, and he was convicted as charged and sentenced to life imprisonment. That did not end the saga of the longest-serving prisoner in the California system.
In January 1970, three inmates of Soledad State Prison were shot dead by a prison guard; who was never charged. There were charges with racial overtones, but the guard was exonerated by a Grand Jury. Three days later, a prison guard was thrown off a walkway to his death.Three black inmates were charged with the murder and sent to San Quentin, where they would be tried for the murder in a Marin County courthouse. The three became known as the “Soledad Brothers.” One of the inmates was George Jackson, who was one of the founders of a prison gang known as “The Black Guerrilla family,” a black prison gang. George Jackson had a relationship with a former UCLA professor named Angela Davis. George also had a younger brother, Jonathon Jackson. A plot was developed where Angela Davis would provide a shotgun and other firearms to Jonathon, who would then enter the courtroom where his brother was being prosecuted, toss a weapon to his brother, release witnesses brought by George Jackson, arm them, and take hostages, consisting of the judge, the DA and four jurors. The prisoners would be driven to an airport, commandeer a plane and escape. Ruchell Magee was one of the prisoner witnesses brought to court that day as a witness to some of the activities of the prison guards. Well they all got into a van, gunfire erupted and all of the escapees were killed, except Ruchell, who I believe was holding the shotgun provided by Angela Davis, which was strapped to the judge’s neck. The shotgun went off in the shootout, blowing the judge’s head off, killing him; the DA took a bullet and became paralyzed; a juror was shot in the leg. Ruchell had multiple charges, including the murder of the judge. Ruchell cut a deal, pled to murder 1st, was sentenced to life and as far as I know is, and has been, in prison, since 1963, which would be about 58 years. Should have taken the plea deal I offered back in 1963 and would have been released and maybe a free man today.
There are a bunch of people who think Ruchell’s crimes were politically motivated, based upon the prison guards’ attitude towards black prisoners, and I think Charley Garry was one of them. My writing is basically from memory, but if you are interested, you can always google the names of Charley Garry, Ruchell Magee, Angela Davis, George Jackson, the Black Guerrilla Group, and the Black Panthers and get some additional information. BTW, Angela Davis split, but was caught in New York, brought back for trial, got her case moved to, I think, Santa Cruz or San Jose and was acquitted of all charges by an all-white jury. (She wrote a book about her experience which I read ages ago. Can’t remember the name but will look it up if anyone is interested,) and I might mention that there are no hard and fast rules in criminal practice, such as “He who represents himself has a fool for a client.” Angela Davis represented herself and won.
Enough for today,
Marshall
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