Free Chol Soo Lee (2022) Movie Script
1
- Sorry about all the smoke.
- It's alright.
It's alright.
Okay, I have speed.
Let's start from the beginning,
- Might as well.
- Okay.
It didn't look good for you
when they came for your arrest.
You had 41 rounds of live ammo
and a .357 magnum in your room,
you were on probation
for felony theft.
Is that a different issue?
No, I mean, it is
a whole different issue.
A lot of people say...
I was not an angel
on the outside.
At the same time,
I was not the devil.
But whatever I was
on the outside does not justify
to frame a person
to put him in prison
for a murder he did not commit.
That is no excuse.
FREE CHOL SOO LEE
At the time,
I was a couple months
short of my 21st birthday.
I was just a young street punk,
not even thinking
about the time of day.
And I was living in Chinatown.
I used to hang out
around Jackson Street,
and at Mike's pool hall,
which were popular spots
for the Chinatown street gangs.
But I was not bothered
once by them.
I had a quiet personality.
I often felt like
the lone Korean in Chinatown.
When I first met Chol Soo Lee,
he was always smiling.
I think he smiled for us.
He was always smiling.
So at that time,
my older sister,
she worked in a pearl store.
Each time she was going
to open an oyster, Chol Soo,
he would peer over to her
opening and revealing the pearl.
And he asked her about that.
"How do you know there's
gonna be a pearl inside?"
And "what kinds of pearls
are going to come out?"
And he stuck around and
he stuck around 'til closing.
She just felt that he was alone,
and so she just said,
"You wanna come over for
dinner?" And he said yes.
He knew a lot of people.
But he would always be
the only Korean,
and so everybody...
"You mean the Korean guy?"
And we'd just see him.
We'd go out to eat
sometimes after work.
There's once he asked me to go
see his probation officer
with him because he said,
"If I bring this nice Japanese
girl, then they'll think"
"that I have good friends
and think better of me."
I was on probation for theft.
Ever since I arrived
from Korea as a kid,
I didn't like staying home,
so I was out
on the street a lot.
When you're out there,
what are you gonna eat?
You have to steal something,
or do something, right?
By 1973, I was doing odd jobs.
Sometimes I'd work as a barker
for the strip joints
on Broadway.
Those are the guys who stand
in front of the night clubs
trying to lure in the customers.
One night the manager
showed me his gun.
It was the first time
I ever held a gun before.
I asked if I could borrow it.
Back at my place, I was cocking
it back and forth, you know,
messing around with it...
Then accidentally shot the wall.
Five days later, I was arrested.
But when they told me it was
for a murder,
I couldn't believe
what they were saying.
I didn't know nothing
about any murder.
JUNE 3, 1973
Yip Yee Tak was
gunned down execution-style
in front of hundreds
of terrified witnesses.
The shooting occurred around
7:30 pm at the intersection
of Pacific and Grant Avenues.
Eyewitnesses say the victim
was shot from behind in the head
by a Chinese man
in his early 20s.
They said the bullet
I shot into my wall
was shot from the murder weapon.
We ended up with 3 positive
identifications
of Mr. Lee as being
the perpetrator of the killing.
It was regarding
a $10,000 alleged rip-off
by the victim from his own gang.
HIS FEAR OF BEING KILLED CAME TRUE
And they hired Mr. Lee to kill
one of their own members
for taking this money.
It just shocked me that Chol Soo
would have been arrested
for a Chinatown murder.
In Chinatown, people knew that
the Korean didn't do it.
I am a Korean,
and Chinese is Chinese.
And I felt that
eventually this...
which I felt at first was just
a misunderstanding,
would be straightened out
in due time.
JURY SAYS "GUILTY" IN CHINATOWN KILLING
KOREAN CONVICTED IN SAN
FRANCISCO SLAYING GETS LIFE SENTENCE
I had been sentenced
to life in prison
for a crime I did not commit.
It was a quiet trip.
I looked out the window
like it might be
my last time seeing the view.
The deputy had the radio
playing at a low volume,
and there was a song
I still remember hearing
during that drive:
"You're Still a Young Man"
by Tower of Power
I felt very old,
as if life was closing in
on me at age 21.
DEUEL VOCATIONAL INSTITUTION
As soon as I got to the prison,
I was subjected
to my first strip search.
Put your head down.
OK, raise your arms up.
Up higher.
Spread your legs.
Okay, this time
I want you to bend over.
As many times as we had to
repeat this routine,
convicts never felt
indifferent to the degradation
and dehumanization
of such treatment.
This built up
a fire of hell within us.
These are members
of prison gangs,
men so violent
that the maximum-security unit
is divided into sections
for different gangs
to keep them from
attacking each other
and from preying on non-members.
I was at one of California's
most violent prisons
at a time when all the gangs
were at war with each other.
Its nickname was
"Gladiator School."
Within less than one year,
I witnessed a convict
get his head bashed in.
Another killed
on a weight bench.
And one inmate get stabbed
24 times, right out in the open.
This suddenly became my world.
How was I,
an inexperienced,
lone Asian convict,
going to stay alive?
WARNING KEEP HANDS OFF GATE
I followed the first rule of
survival in any prison system:
Show no fear.
This wrongness was so wrong.
What uh...?
What are you
going to do about it?
And I thought,
"I'm going to become that lawyer"
"that will take
that kind of case."
And then at that point,
all I could do was
just like be his friend.
DEAR RANKO,
THE BEAUTIFULEST AND BEST.
FALTA TEXTO
MORE THAN A FRIEND.
I started to have
feelings for her.
But she did not feel
the same way about me.
That could have caused her
to cut me off.
But she didn't.
Instead, Ranko's response
all throughout the years
reflected a struggle for justice
as her main inspiration.
It may not have been
a personal relationship,
but Ranko's friendship was pure
light in my darkened world.
AFTER 4 YEARS IN PRISON
Colorful...
the morning's Sacramento Union!
Good news, great people.
People like K.W. Lee,
award-winning
investigative reporter.
K.W Lee, digging, probing,
tackling the bureaucracy,
infiltrating the unknown.
Read K.W. Lee!
So I learned from
a drug counselor in Chinatown.
He was casually saying,
"Hey, it's a shame that,
the Korean kid got railroaded."
Here, I was looking into a case
which is already four years old.
But I don't leap
into conclusion.
I'm an investigative reporter,
and I follow the smell.
I kept reading
the court records and
things shouted at me.
OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS
The arresting officer
on the stand
to identify Chol Soo Lee
as the man he arrested, he said,
"There, that Chinese,"
pointing at Chol Soo Lee
in the defense table.
Calling a Korean a Chinese.
Anybody who has a smattering of
understanding of Asian culture
would find it very unreal.
GANGLAND KILLINGS: NO END SEEN
One of the Chinese youths
had a gun
and fired several shots
into another Chinese youth.
Ng, in his 60s, was killed
in the front room of the school
by an Oriental youth
in his early teens.
Killings in Chinatown
are involving
awfully young individuals.
There's been
gangland style murders,
bodies dumped in the bay
where they had been
strangled and bound.
Killings on the street.
The specter of gangs have
frightened some merchants
to close early at night.
Grant Avenue seems empty
of natives or tourists.
San Francisco Chinatown
is a tourist town,
and there have been a dozen
unsolved murders.
And Mayor Alioto was really
getting pressure on the police.
There's always going
to be priorities,
and right now I say
the priority is Chinatown.
It didn't take a genius
to find out what went wrong.
Chinese, Japanese, Koreans,
they all look alike.
These things put the impact
on this street boy,
who had no pressure groups,
no defense groups.
He was completely alone.
How does an Asian
prisoner exist, or
handle or survive a prison,
say like DVI,
which is run by prison gangs?
So for Asians
within a prison system,
their survival depends more on
to avoid aggression
rather than to take action.
But not to be fearful of using
aggression if it's necessary.
Two gangs were fighting over
who ran the poker games.
I was friendly with both.
But the white gang
didn't like that
I associated with
the Mexican gang.
I refused to choose sides.
And soon I learned that
the whites were gonna
come after me.
OCTOBER 8, 1977
In the world of prison,
there is a code of conduct
that is totally different
from normal society.
The convicts' code is clear-cut.
Reputation is everything
in prison.
Any sign of disrespect
could lead to violence.
This code may seem like madness.
I can't even find the words
to explain it so that you,
who live in free society,
could understand my position.
All I knew was that in order
to survive in this world,
I had to follow
the convict's code.
If I hadn't,
I'd be dead.
Inmate Chol Soo Lee
is charged with murder
in the stabbing death
of a fellow prisoner.
Chol Soo Lee killed a member
of the Aryan Brotherhood.
But no matter what,
where the knife came from,
who had it first,
what you were wearing or
what you ate for breakfast...
The fact that you were
in that position to be in prison
all that time for something
you didn't even do?
All of that,
everything you do
is self-defense.
A detective told me
I was charged
with first-degree murder.
It sent chills
throughout my mind.
Until that moment,
I didn't even know
that the man I fought was dead.
And because of my prior
murder conviction,
I would now face
the death penalty.
I was shitting my pants.
Because I was ready to do
a story on Chol Soo Lee.
Then, bang, he was charged
with a second murder!
Now, the picture has changed.
That's when I had to see him.
"Dear Chol Soo Lee:"
"My name is Kyung Won Lee."
"I want to write
about the problems"
"you have run into in America."
"Dear Mr. Kyung Won Lee:"
"I want to thank you
very much for"
"the thoughtful words
I read in your letter."
"Please understand my experience
is not a happy story."
"I would very much wish
to talk with you."
When I found myself in a prison,
that's where I find
a lonely Korean down there.
I am the only Korean reporter
in the mainstream media.
I also felt so alone myself.
So when I look at Chol Soo Lee,
I feel like I met an old friend.
What a good-looking kid.
Really good-looking kid.
He was in a living hell.
But he had some
innate friendliness.
He had that smile.
So we established
some kind of telepathy.
After all these years,
I finally had the chance to say,
"I'm innocent."
He single-handedly gave me hope
when there was no hope.
I was born out of wedlock
during the Korean War.
And sadly for my mother,
she was disinherited
from her family,
so she married an American
soldier and left for America.
And my uncle and auntie
kept me, to raise me in Korea.
It was just after the war,
and we had fallen on hard times.
We would pick up scrap metal
to try and get by.
We didn't eat sometimes
for two or three days.
But when my auntie found
a bowl of rice,
you know who she gave it to?
One small bowl for me,
and one small bowl
for her youngest son.
They were very, very
kind people.
I called my auntie and uncle
"mother" and "father,"
and they treated me
like their own son.
Years later, my mother had
separated from her husband
and came back to Korea.
"This is my son," she said,
"and I'm going
to take him to America."
Ladies and gentlemen,
your flight attendants...
I arrived in San Francisco
on November 14, 1964,
at the age of 12.
My mother showed me
her apartment,
which had a kitchen
with a gas burning stove,
a bathtub with cold
and hot water.
I thought,
"How rich my mother must be
to have such great luxuries."
But I had a lot of difficulty
with English.
The school was mostly geared
toward Chinese immigrants,
and there were no Korean
teachers or counselors.
One day another student
started a fight with me.
They took me
to the principal's office.
But I couldn't explain
that it wasn't my fault,
so I had a tantrum.
I kicked the principal, and
they charged me with battery.
SAN FRANCISCO JUVENILE HALL
When I first went
to juvenile hall,
I guess I was thinking in Korean
that I'm a bad boy now.
Started smoking cigarettes,
trying to act tough
and all that.
If you go to jail,
you must be a bad person,
you know?
One time I was so frustrated
to be in juvenile hall
that I put a towel
around my neck.
And the counselor thought
I was going
to try to commit suicide.
It was not a real suicide.
I was just trying
to get attention
to get out of juvenile hall.
So they sent me
to the psychiatric ward.
They gave me a handful
of medication every day.
But I refused to take it,
so they started
forcing me and gave me shots.
I was at the psychiatric
hospital for three months,
but they released me when
they realized I wasn't crazy.
I just couldn't speak English.
This young boy
was condemned as insane.
There were no support systems,
no counselors,
no school teachers.
Nobody, absolutely
he was on his own.
The criminal justice system
had no incentive
to really find out
about this boy and his cultural
and language background.
Back home, my mother
was working two jobs,
at the cannery and
as a cocktail waitress.
And when she was home,
sometimes she'd beat me.
So I started running away.
One time, I made it
all the way to the ocean.
Maybe I just wanted
to go back to Korea.
I still don't know why
my mother brought me here.
It was just by the grace of God
I have eluded the fate
that fell on him.
Because there's a very thin line
between him and me.
MOST OF HIS AMERICAN LIFE SPENIN CONFINEMENT AS A LONE KOREAN
I was lucky.
He was not lucky.
There are an awful lot
of unlucky people.
Especially Asians.
They have no language.
They couldn't tell their story.
A MISPLACED PERSON'S SAGA AS STRANGE AS
THE KAFKA-LIKE CHARACTER IN "THE TRIAL"
The institutions, the media,
and law enforcement,
the judicial system
have continued to remain
ignorant and insensitive.
And that's why I felt, you know,
it was my calling
to make some small dent
in that wall
of ignorance and insensitivity.
LOST IN A STRANGE CULTURE
Comforting the afflicted
and afflicting the comfortable.
That has been the tradition
of print journalism.
It happened in America,
but only in America...
We can right this wrong.
ALICE-IN-CHINATOWN MURDER CASE
My roommate, Dave Kakishiba,
and I were going to Berkeley.
And we saw ourselves
as activists.
18, 19 years old, you're taking
Asian American Studies classes.
You're talking
about oppression, yeah so,
I guess I fit the bill.
We came across a newspaper article,
and it said something about
"Alice in Chinatown."
And we both said,
"Hey, it sounds
like this man is innocent."
So we went to
the Sacramento Union office
and met K.W. Lee.
There were papers everywhere,
and he had stuff
all over the walls.
And he just spent a couple of
hours just running down
all the details about the case.
We were pretty inspired
by his controlled rage,
if you will.
We asked him, what can we do?
And so he gave us the names
of some of the activists
who had started
a defense committee.
I was just fresh out
from law school.
My favorite subject is
criminal procedure.
And I went to the prison,
to Chol Soo Lee.
And I just asked him,
"Tell me about your life."
He says he was born
during the Korean War.
His birthday is August 15.
That's Korean Independence Day.
His name is Chol Soo,
the most popular Korean name.
He must be some man who has
all the sad history of Korea.
K.W. Lee, Grace Kim and I
decided to form
a defense committee
and help Chol Soo Lee out.
FREE CHOL SOO LEE!
At that time, Korean churches
were the organizing force
in the Korean community.
That's really where the
Chol Soo Lee movement started.
Me and Jay Yoo always went
to the Korean churches together.
So we told them
what's going on now.
Chol Soo's plight is a tragedy,
and we must free him.
He could be
an excellent young leader.
Brothers and sisters,
we must save him.
Thank you.
They all made special donation.
This is definitely
a Korean immigrant body
that is coming together
in Sacramento.
And I'm willing to jump on
anybody's bandwagon!
And then, in the Bay Area,
we were at every community fair,
either getting signatures
or having people sign up,
or just talking about his case.
So, "Free Chol Soo Lee," people
come up, they want one.
Because they're free.
They thought we were giving away
some free food.
We sold hot links.
We did fundraising dances.
All those young people said,
"We're going to do fundraising!"
What they did was a dance party,
a concert...
So it costs lots of money.
So we gave them...
But they could not raise
any money!
They spent all our money!
I had written a poem
about the Chol Soo Lee case.
And I said, "Why don't
we make this into a song?"
"We can get the song
on the radio,"
"and people will find out
about the case!"
SET CHOL SOO FREE
FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY RIGHTS
FIGHT FOR EQUALITY
NO DEATH PENALTY FOR CHOL SOO LEE
A shot rang out in the alley
A man was lying cold dead
Witnesses -three out-of-town tourists
barely recollected
He kind of looked like this one
but they look alike you see
Cops in a hurry want to close the case
so they handcuffed Chol Soo Lee
Many times I asked myself:
"Why are so many people,
total strangers to me,"
"working so hard to get me
out of prison?"
And that kind of
boggled my mind.
I didn't know why they did it.
I was just a prisoner,
and something like that
never happened in my life.
I took this support
in a very personal way.
And I would not understand
until many years later
the enormity of what I'd become
in the eyes of these people.
I had become a cause.
A symbol.
Chol Soo Lee...
His name has been synonymous
within the Korean community
with the fight against injustice
and discrimination.
We needed materials
to walk around in the community
and tell his story.
And it was so hard
to just explain it,
word for word,
what was going in his case.
So I made
this little slide show.
The struggle for Chol Soo's
freedom is also a struggle
of an entire people.
It is a fight for
our own freedom.
Do you know about
Chol Soo Lee's case?
Yes, of course.
First of all,
I know it was not a fair trial.
As a fellow Korean,
I want him to get a fair trial,
so I'm following it.
The broader Asian communities
and the public at large
have also joined
in the struggle.
Demonstrations, hundreds of
people were always there.
Court hearings, hundreds
of people were there.
The Chol Soo Lee movement
had a life of its own.
People of different
nationalities came together.
The first, second and third
generations worked together,
and it gave us resolve.
Blue jeans and Korean dresses
getting together.
NO DEATH PENALTY
CHOL SOO IS INNOCENIt may be one of
the first times that
so many different people united
around one single issue.
How do you feel about
this community support?
I feel very good that
so many Korean people
and all different class of people
could relate to me.
My deepest sincerest thanks
to everyone
that give me
their support and the time.
And hopefully that
I could relate to them as well.
And the support
they are giving me,
that they would do, maybe,
for other Chol Soo Lees
possibly in the streets,
- running loose now.
- Not just yourself.
I received a number of visitors.
I tried to smile and relate
to them as best as I could.
But it wasn't always easy.
A convict may have
his own personal integrity
and humanity burning within him.
But then it's a struggle
to hold onto them.
His own survival
must guide his actions,
as he is slowly
institutionalized, transformed.
I never discussed these feelings
with my supporters.
Seeing the movement's good will,
I didn't want to bring
dark clouds over them.
We have in our studio
this morning, Leonard Weinglass,
who's famous
for being the counsel in the
Chicago Seven conspiracy trial.
He defended Angela Davis.
Mr. Weinglass, what is it that
interested you
in the Chol Soo Lee case?
When the Korean community
came to me
and brought me the records
of the Chol Soo Lee case,
I became convinced that
his was a case of an injustice.
This is Josiah Thompson
in the case
of The People vs. Chol Soo Lee.
This happened
in the middle of Chinatown.
There must have been
30, 40 Asian people around.
Not one was ever interviewed
by the police.
Not one ever testified at trial.
All you had testifying at trial,
they were all Anglos.
I hit up everybody I knew,
looking for witnesses.
And Tink couldn't do that.
You really couldn't have a
white investigator do that.
But I could.
Ranko had this witness, Mr. X.
I know for a fact
that it wasn't Chol Soo.
MURDER WITNESS STEPS FORWARD
Prior to the shooting
living in Chinatown,
I've seen Chol Soo and
I've seen this other person.
Witness X saw the killer
throw away the gun...
And he was not willing
to testify in open court.
Why?
Because he'd be killed.
It's too frightening.
Too frightening for me...
for me to risk, you know,
my family's lives.
It was such a brutal
public murder.
You never get witnesses
from the community
from that kind of shooting.
Chinatown residents are
most hesitant to talk about
what they've seen,
what they've heard,
or even what they think.
But then some clerk
had made a mistake
and had turned over
a bunch of court papers.
Those papers contained
some new things.
Something about this "Steve"
and "Point Richmond."
And so I went to Point Richmond.
And we asked around and finally
we got the name "Morris"
to connect with the "Steve."
And when we finally reached him
in Los Angeles, he astonished us
by telling us that
he was only 12 feet away
at the time of the killing.
A percipient witness closer than
any other witness to the case,
had been known to the police,
and his very existence had not
been revealed to the defense.
I'd read something
about hypnosis,
and how hypnosis
would bring back details,
of particular memories.
So the doctor starts with this
kind of sing-song tone,
and counts down from 15.
And wow!
I still remember that
as unbelievable.
Steve says,
"I can see a lion."
That lion was part of
this giant mural
that you encounter
as you drive into Chinatown.
So then he says, "I was standing
outside the Ping Yuen Bakery."
INVESTIGATOR'S RE-ENACTMEN"Then I saw that Asian guy
fire the first shot."
"Hit the victim in the chest."
"And then he spun around,"
"and the killer put a bullet
in the back of his head."
The autopsy report showed that
he was shot in the chest,
just above the right nipple.
The press reports,
they're all wrong!
TWICE IN THE BACK
He saw it the way
it really happened,
not like everybody else who's
just reading the newspaper.
That establishes his bonafides!
So I brought Morris up,
put him in the courtroom,
turned on the tape recorder.
And I said, "Steve, you've just
seen Chol Soo Lee."
"Was Chol Soo Lee
the person you saw kill"
"Yip Yee Tak
in front of your eyes?"
No, he wasn't.
He said, "No, he's too little."
I'm positive.
And he's beautiful.
"The killer was kind of ugly."
"Thank you, Steve."
I turned off the tape recorder,
and we've got it.
NEW WITNESS SAYS IT WASN'T LEE
Judge Lawrence Karlton declares
the Chinatown conviction
invalid.
NEW TRIAL ORDERED IN CHINATOWN KILLING
But the joy was short-lived.
San Francisco prosecutors
immediately appealed.
I remained in prison
as I awaited my murder trial
in the prison-yard case.
But this was
a happy time for me.
So many supporters
came to my hearings.
And I felt like
I had gone on vacation
from the violent,
lonely world of prison.
"My dear Chol Soo:"
"I have sent
a package of reading books."
"Also, can we send you
a jar of kimchi?"
"Even an animal in a zoo is
entitled to some favorite food."
"Dear Mr. Kyung Won:"
"I would much love to eat
some kimchi as well as some"
"other Korean food with some
rice that is cooked right,"
"but I don't think people
here would permit it."
"Thank you for the books
I also received earlier today."
"With each letter I receive from
you, I find my spirits rising."
"Chol Soo:"
"You represent a tiny people
with a sad but heroic history."
"You are not just yourself.
You represent us all."
For the ones that took the time
to go and meet Chol Soo, wow.
That kind of personal contact
made such a difference.
I started corresponding,
and was just so moved
by him responding,
writing his handwritten letters.
And his script was
just beautiful.
His Korean, I think,
is kind of street Korean,
like his English is
street English.
So I think it's kind of cute.
I thought it was very charming.
Yeah, he had
his own way of talking.
He made smoking cigarettes
look cool.
I believed in him as a person,
I believed in him as a leader.
It was hard to believe that,
not long ago,
I used to hope so much
for a single letter
from my mother or from Ranko.
And when the guards would
walk down the tier,
handing out mail,
I would wait with anticipation.
During these times,
there would be total silence
in the whole prison.
This silence...
was the same in every prison.
But now, here I was,
staying up late,
just to respond to all
letters from across the country,
and even South Korea.
They saw me,
and called me by my name.
They said,
"Chol Soo, don't give up."
"We're fighting with you."
The Chol Soo Lee
Defense committee is
a broad-based organization
made up of Koreans and
other Asian Americans.
We have defense committees
active from New York to L.A.,
WE WANT A FAIR TRIAL
in both Korea and Japan.
We're all unified
around a common goal,
which is to free Chol Soo Lee.
SET CHOL SOO FREE
UNITE TO FREE CHOL SOO LEE
And Chol Soo's mother,
she entered in the support
movement more reluctantly.
She probably thought
that her son was just
an unrepentant criminal.
And it took a process
to draw her out to support
her own son in this movement.
And then she came out
like a storm.
Why is innocent boy locked up?
Taxpayers' wasted money,
they lock him up.
If my son's guilty,
I'm not going to defend my son.
If he's guilty,
he has to deserve.
But he's innocent.
Yes, I believe he's innocent.
This is the gas chamber
at San Quentin Prison.
Chol Soo Lee may be the first
Korean in the United States
to die here.
It's painted in this weird
sort of chartreuse color.
A hockey puck of cyanide
is dropped into a tub of acid,
and cyanide fumes are given off.
If you breathe cyanide, you die.
AFTER 6 YEARS IN PRISON
THE TRIAL FOR THE PRISON-YARD
KILLING BEGINS IN STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA.
These people feel Chol Soo Lee
is not getting
a fair shake
within the justice system.
It was at
Deuel Vocational Institution
where Lee killed
another prisoner.
We really want to show
the people, the judge,
the court system,
the prison system,
that we're continued
and determined to fight!
Stockton was
a pretty white place.
All of a sudden,
all these people come.
I think they were
kind of blown away.
It's important to show support
whenever there's a trial.
The jury and the judge can see
the Korean community,
they are ready
to accept this man,
and feel that they can return
him to the community.
Depending on what happens,
it could be anywhere from
a death sentence for Chol Soo,
all the way to immediate release
back to the community.
So everything hangs
in the balance.
Chol's a young Asian, was caught
literally in the cross-fire
of gang warfare,
which was racial warfare.
It's a classic case
of self-defense.
Coming down to self-survival,
there's no place to run
within the prison system.
Judge Papas was
very antagonistic.
And he resented the presence
of people supporting Chol Soo.
I have seen very few Caucasians
in this room, very frankly.
You see Caucasians in the jury
box. I'm afraid that's where it matters.
When I went out to the courtroom
and look at all
the jury members,
and the faces I seen
was the same kind of faces
I've seen in Sacramento in 1974.
The panel of jurors.
And at that time,
I informed my attorney that
I felt this whole case is gonna
be another mockery of justice.
The jury found Lee guilty
of first-degree murder
and sentenced him to die
in the gas chamber.
The judge came down and ruled
the death penalty for Chol Soo.
We're not finished,
we're going to keep on fighting.
- Freedom for Chol Soo Lee!
- Freedom for Chol Soo Lee!
Leonard, what's to be gained
from all the support? Anything?
You make it sound contrived.
These people came because
they wanted to come,
so they're doing it because
they feel it's right.
MOTHER OF CHOL SOO LEE
CALIFORNIA STATE PRISON SAN QUENTIN
CONDEMNED ROW
First of all,
it's hard for me to comprehend
that I am on death row
for a crime I did not commit.
It almost feels like
sometimes you're dying
just each day
as you live, but...
This experience of working with
the people on outside has been
one of the most tremendous
and beautiful experiences
of my life.
The poor man cannot expect
to get justice by himself,
but he needs people to...
to try and get justice.
That's it.
During my years on death row,
the State of California
did not execute anyone.
But two men committed suicide.
I came to realize that
the system was designed so that
the condemned man
would kill himself,
before his execution.
By making him go through
his depression alone.
And he might save
the system time and effort
by taking his own life.
Every convict on death row
thought about
taking his own life.
But I never burdened
people on the outside
with such dark thoughts.
Instead,
I always expressed my gratitude
and encouraged them
not to give up,
because this would be
a long fight.
I would be on death row
for three more years
before my retrial started.
AFTER 9 YEARS IN PRISON
LEE HOPES TO ESCAPE DEATH ROW IN RETRIAL
What has these past 9 years
been like for you in prison?
I think...
This is
a very difficult question.
What has happened over 9 years?
What has it been like?
I think in a sense that...
I feel very bitter that I've
been in prison all this time
for a murder I did not commit.
But at the same time,
I'm very grateful
that my case has become
an educational experience
for the Asian community.
My time that I've spent in
prison is not going to waste,
but is working in a positive
sense to educate Asian people
that we can work together
when we want to.
I had become
an attorney by that time
and I joined the legal team.
And we retained Tony Serra
and Stuart Hanlon.
I was worried.
I think I didn't meet Tony
Serra until almost trial time.
This man, who does not look
like your image of a lawyer...
I didn't know how
he would get on board
if he had not been
to these meetings.
And then he appears!
It's like fiction.
When I go into court,
I'll look at the jury.
I won't say a word
and they're starting to wonder.
Then I'd clap.
I call that the "zen slap"
because it'll change
their focus.
They've just heard
a different argument.
That kind of cleanses them,
it opens their mind,
it purifies them.
We started opening arguments by
taking a picture of a mug book.
The San Francisco
Police Department
had a book back in 1973
called the
"Chinatown Gang Mug Book."
And the cover of the book
had a cartoon that was a cross
in my mind between
a Fu Manchu character
and a Ho Chi Minh character.
A total racist caricature.
And we argued to the jury
this case started
in this kind of racism.
What that picture says
to these white witnesses,
"It's only an Asian,
it's only a chink."
The killing occurred
on the corner of
Grant and Pacific
on a crowded Sunday
in Chinatown.
The killer went east
on Pacific Street.
He threw his gun down the alley.
And they find out that
Chol Soo Lee had been involved
in a gun going off in his
hotel room incident
two days earlier.
The police ran
a ballistics check.
And lo and behold, the gun
that fired the murder bullets
also fired the bullet
found in that hotel room.
Okay, if that's true,
Chol Soo Lee is guilty.
But the class characteristics of
the two bullets were different.
Class characteristics have to do
with the lands and grooves
that are carved into the bullet
by its passage
through the barrel.
The class characteristics
didn't match.
That's enough to throw out
the test right there.
You don't have
to go any further.
Now whether he did it
on purpose,
whether he did it
'cause he's sloppy,
whether he did it because
they had to get somebody,
none of us ever knows.
We were aware of that error
early in the investigation.
And that error
was made known in discovery
to defense counsel
way before the first trial.
But the key was that that locked
the police into Chol Soo Lee.
Once they realized
in their mind that
his gun had killed this person,
they didn't care
about anybody else.
They assumed he was guilty.
I saw how they had gone off
in the wrong direction
because of the ballistics.
I saw that their eyewitnesses
were very fallible,
very easy to discredit.
The main prosecution witnesses,
Lennon and Mill...
were at this corner, 45 feet
away from the shooting.
One factor that never
came out in the first trial:
Dave Lennon in 1969
happened to be a guard
at Youth Guidance Center
in San Francisco.
There was a 17-year-old
Asian kid
who was the only Asian kid
when Lennon was there.
It so happened that Asian kid
was Chol Soo Lee.
And it so happened the picture
that David Lennon picked out
the night of the killing,
as a possible suspect,
was a picture taken in 1969.
As soon as that was brought
to his attention,
he backed off his ID,
and he didn't remember that
he had seen him and interacted
with him at a past time.
So there went Witness No. 1.
Witness No. 2 was Andy Mill.
He was a world-class skier.
At that point,
he was 20 years old.
He thought he was the greatest
thing in the world.
And he was so sure
that his initial description
of the killer had to be right.
It's a guy
with no mustache who's 5-10 who
I saw for a second and a half
from 45 feet away.
He identified a person that
in no way could be Chol Soo Lee.
Chol Soo Lee is short,
he was 5-2.
They identified a person
who was 5-10.
Their witnesses were
white tourists
that were diagonally
across the street.
This was a classic case,
it's called
cross-racial identification.
You don't distinguish facial
features of other racial groups.
But we finally got
an Asian witness
who'd been at the scene
to come forward and testify.
After the shooting, the killer
went east on Pacific Street.
We ended up approximately
here in Beckett Alley.
Stephen Low was walking
up the street,
and the killer went
right past him here,
at the corner of Beckett Alley.
Low was really
the closest witness.
STEPHEN LOW KILLER
He said, "I was there."
"I didn't go to the police
because I was afraid."
"And I'm willing to come
forward now 'cause"
"I'm separated from
the Chinatown scene."
Stephen Low was a key witness
'cause he was the only
Asian eyewitness
who would say,
"I know it isn't this man."
It was an easy case
to see transparently
that they had the wrong person.
If the system really was honest,
they would have just dumped
the case instead of trying
a second time to convict
an innocent person.
And that really is
the heart of the outrage.
GANG MURDER RETRIAL GOES TO JURY
SEPTEMBER 3, 1982
We were waiting
and pacing outside,
and one of my friends had gone
to Jack in the Box.
I just happened to be there.
And so I went into court when
they said they had a verdict.
So the courtroom fills up,
but we have to wait
20 minutes to have about
30 armed sheriffs brought down
because the judge
is really afraid that,
if it's a guilty verdict,
there's going to be
pandemonium in the court.
So they rise. It's very formal.
And everything is very quiet.
If the jury looks at you,
that's good.
If the jury comes out
and won't look at you,
that's horrible!
I didn't know
who was going to win.
I warned my people,
"Even if we win,
don't shout loud. Be quiet."
The judge said,
"Do you have a verdict?"
And the jury foreman
says, "Yes."
And they give it to this clerk.
She reads the verdict form,
which seemed like
it took forever.
"People of
the state of California,"
"Superior Court
of San Francisco,"
"People vs. Chol Soo Lee,
case number blah blah blah..."
And then it goes to the part,
"We the jury find the defendant"
And she stops.
I only remember hearing
the words...
"Not."
Yeah!
We won!
Won!
We won!
I can't control myself.
Innocent until proven guilty
and reasonable doubt.
And we discussed that
and brought it up, and used it,
and tried to keep it
in our minds.
Well, after almost five years
on the scene,
I just feel very numb.
But I am exhilarated,
obviously.
This is the outcome that
any reporter would be proud of.
You have just achieved
the impossible.
People just jump up and yell!
It's chaos in the courtroom.
It was so thrilling.
"MY VICTORY IS YOURS"
When he was acquitted,
he wanted us to know
that the case was more
than just about him.
Chol addressed everybody
in the court
and said what was
really obvious,
that this was a victory for
the Asian community
and not just for him.
And he says, "Thank you."
He thanks everyone.
Then his arm goes out
right under my nose.
He pointed at the prosecutor,
started screaming at him,
"You knew all along
I was innocent!"
"You know you're at fault!"
Oh boy, I forget
his exact words but
they were loud and
they were accusatory.
So far none of them
has admitted that...
the wrongful imprisonment
of these years.
Not the police department,
not the prosecutor.
I think for me to feel a little
bit of justice out of this line,
that the people responsible for
putting me in this prison
admit to their wrongdoing.
I just hope and pray
that the Korean community and
the Oriental people
that have come out in his
support and believe in him,
will support him
once he is released
and hopefully lead him in
the right direction this time.
Your story is definitely
public outcry.
How do you feel about
being a cause or a symbol?
For too long a time, I think
Asians have been subjected to
racial injustice
in the history of America and...
I think this time, the Asian
community came forth and said,
"Enough is enough."
MARCH 28, 1983
Moments before
he walked into freedom,
he felt that he couldn't live up
to the Chol Soo Lee
that people expected.
VOICE OF STUART HANLON
I remember standing up
with him, going to the door,
and saying,
"Well, let's go find out."
Stuart told me,
"There are a lot of news media
people waiting for you."
"If you're not ready
to face them,"
"we can go out
through the back door."
And I told him,
"No..."
"I will walk through
the front door."
Chol Soo Lee,
can we talk to you for a minute?
It's been 10 years,
how do you feel today?
I feel very great
and very thankful
for all of the support
people have given me,
especially to Mr. Jay Kun Yoo
out of Sacramento,
and I'm very grateful
for the support and trust
that people have given me
to free me on this day today.
Hi, Chol Soo!
Oh, that's wonderful,
that's wonderful!
I told him, "This is your life."
"This is just your life.
It's not charmed."
"It's not burdened.
It's not cursed."
"This is the life
you get to have."
And that's...
You know, it's a big deal.
Can you make "V" sign for us?
By the way, Chol Soo,
how old are you now?
- I'm 50 years old.
- I'll be damned.
And I've been out of prison
for 20 years, almost...
- Now.
- I'll be damned.
Time flies fast, isn't it?
And when you look back...
You were in prison,
how many years total?
- 10 years.
- Yeah, 10 years.
When you came out, was it
really difficult in many ways?
- Yes, it was because...
- Why?
Nobody told me
that I was this famous guy.
He went on, like a tour,
like a celebrity.
All these people recognize me.
These young girls were coming up
asking for autographs.
We went to Hawaii with Chol Soo.
We met
Hawaiian supporters there.
Everyone welcomed us
and it was joyous.
He was asked to go
to a jazz festival event.
You know, so they're playing
their jazz thing, right?
Chol Soo said, "This is
worse than being in prison."
"We got to go,
get me out of here."
So, you know, that's hard work.
He had to do things like that.
5 MONTHS AFTER RELEASE
PROSECUTORS OFFER CHOL SOO A
PLEA DEAL IN THE PRISON-YARD CASE.
And they said, to remain free,
let us compromise...
Plead guilty
to second-degree murder,
and there'd be no probation,
no parole.
It'd be unconditional.
So I plead guilty instead of
facing another challenge
in the legal system.
Lee acted in self-defense.
He never should have been there.
And this is the clearest example
of the system not working
'cause what it took was
10 years in prison,
an entire community of people
fighting years and years,
going through many courts,
getting the best lawyers
in our country to fight for him.
That's what it took
to get him out.
THE MULTI-SERVICES CENTER FOR KOREANS
Multi-Service Center
for Koreans, may I help you?
These days,
Chol Soo Lee can be found
in a conventional work setting.
As a staff member of
the Multi-Service Center
for Koreans in San Francisco,
he continues to keep his ties
with the Asian community.
During the weekends, I usually
try to visit senior citizens
to show my respect
and thanks to them.
I feel real great to see them
and thank them in person
and to receive
their warm welcome.
Just type your name.
Just as if you were typing.
See now, when you write this,
I can tell
where your English is bad.
Keep pushing until you've
erased what you don't want, see?
I got him a job as a salesman
at a computer retailer.
It went well for a few months,
but then he quit.
I asked the boss why he quit.
He said he overslept
and couldn't show up on time
in the morning.
There was a movie
that was made...
James Woods with a ponytail,
that was supposed
to be Tony Serra.
They really portrayed
the community as sort of props.
Ah, it looks like you've become
a symbol for your community.
May I get a ride with you guys?
Go ahead, Shu.
Be important.
I was so furious.
This victory came about because
of a grassroots movement.
So many, many people
were involved.
We went to UC Berkeley.
I had a couple of Defense
Committee people with me.
They asked me to go up
and say something.
I never been in front of nobody
to speak, anything like that.
So what should I say?
They said just go up there,
tell 'em to be good and
that's it.
I went up there... "Well",
"Do good, study hard,
thank you."
I'm walking back
and all the students
looking at me, what an idiot!
After all the fanfare,
another friend,
who was also
in the Defense Committee,
was able to get him a job
as a janitor.
But for Chol Soo,
going from being
this leader of a movement
to suddenly being told
to clean offices up.
It was hard for him.
I think I was very, very lonely.
Whenever I go out with people,
I have a good time.
But after it's over...
I'm by myself, you know,
like I'm back in prison.
I think that there were
a few people trying
to give him advice.
He's got to live
the square life.
He owes that to the community.
You're gonna really disappoint
a lot of people,
if you fuck up.
He was really,
really struggling.
He felt there was this huge
expectation from the community
about how he should be
after he got out.
And he wanted to be that.
But then he also had
all these demons.
When I came out of prison,
I think it was the expectation
that I could be
successful in life,
lead a normal life,
which was difficult,
especially when you have been
in prison for 10 years,
spending 4 years of that
on death row.
It's difficult to come out here,
to say, "I'm normal."
He also wanted to party.
That was a little
uncomfortable for me.
I mean I get it,
and at the same time,
I'm not sure that we should be
enabling him to do that.
He wanted some kind of relief.
He wanted drugs.
He wanted liquor.
And when you give
that person drugs,
and people unfortunately did
because they thought
they were being his friend,
you end up with a drug addict.
Drugs was everywhere.
The cocaine.
I started smoking it,
I was smoking
sometimes a quarter ounce
to half ounce a day.
That was impossible
for any person to live.
Use that much cocaine.
I don't know how my body
could tolerate that much drugs.
And it got worse and worse...
And I was back on the streets.
He comes to our law office,
and he begs for money.
And I said,
"No, it's not right."
Why didn't you do anything
before you ran out of money?
He should have worked.
You have to work.
Don't try to depend on somebody.
He came over one day,
and he was yelling at me.
He needed money, he needed
a connection to get drugs,
he needed cocaine.
He couldn't continue like this,
I owed it to him.
He went on and on and on,
and he punched the wall,
and then he pulled a knife.
And he started
moving towards me.
I pulled a gun and I said,
"You have to put
the knife down and leave."
One night he scares me,
he comes banging on the door
because he wants money.
So I had some rolled quarters
and a change jar.
And I gave that to him
and I said,
"Don't ever come back here..."
"uninvited again."
She warned me about Chol Soo,
deep into drugs.
I was acting
almost as his father.
And he really felt guilty
about what he was doing.
And I think he was trying
to avoid me at that time.
I went back to prison in 1990,
and did 18 months
on a drug possession charge.
I came back to San Francisco
in July of 1991.
I had a pretty solid reputation
from being in prison
and stuff like that.
So I started getting
involved with
some of the Chinatown gangs.
For the first time in my life.
CHOL SOO LEE SEVERELY BURNED IN HOUSE FIRE
I had direct orders to do
the arson for this house.
What happened was that...
I slipped on the floor and
all the gasoline that was there
soaked all onto my clothes.
I don't know
what set the fire, but
I saw myself burning and
everything around me burning.
I was thinking to myself,
you got maybe
another 10, 15 seconds,
and I don't think
you're gonna make it after that.
I forced the door open,
and got myself out of there.
First thing I did,
I rolled over,
put out any fire
that may still be in me.
After that,
everything just went black.
During that first month or so,
there was nothing but pain.
A pain beyond endurance.
And I remember that
I had to scream out loud.
If there ever is hell,
then I know
what type of pain that
could be inflicted
upon a person.
Wish I had not survived.
FEDERAL PRISON
ROCHESTER, MINNESOTA
"My dear Chol Soo:"
"I want you to fill
this aching gap for me."
"There's much confusion,
disappointment and suspicion"
"among those who
have supported our cause."
"They want to know
what happened and why."
"Those of us who have been
by your side"
"through all these years"
"are bound together
for better or worse,"
"if our fleeting existence
on earth"
"has any meaning at all."
CHOL SOO AGREES TO TESTIFY AGAINSTHE GANG THAT HIRED HIM FOR THE ARSON.
THEN HE ENTERS FEDERAL WITNESS PROTECTION.
12 YEARS AFTER THE ARSON
How have you been living?
I worked as a janitor.
I worked as a car salesman.
How was it?
- That was pretty tough, I...
- Yeah, I know.
You are not a salesman type.
No, but I think
a lot of the sales people
got very scared of me, you know?
This guy is too
mean-looking now, you know?
Why can't they do something
with your face?
My doctor said they would do
a face transplant.
You know,
from a dead person's face?
I told them, no.
This is the face I got.
I die with it, I die with it.
When you run away
the first time,
what was the reason
why you run away?
It was my mother.
She beat me every time
she had a chance.
- Why?
- I don't know, I don't...
Ask Doris. She'd tell you.
She could tell you.
Chol Soo's mom talked about
her birth dream.
Birth dream?
During pregnancy,
a woman has a dream.
Chol Soo's mom said
in her dream,
a snake chased her.
She kept running away from it,
but it caught her and bit her.
It bit her, and even though
she chopped it up with a knife,
it wouldn't let her go.
She told me
Chol Soo's last name is Song.
- Song. His father.
- His father.
She said
she was raped by Mr. Song.
Because he was a child born
of rape, she really hated him.
Mrs. Lee, was Chol Soo
really a bad boy?
No...
He's a kind little boy.
- He's a kind boy?
- Yes.
Why did I come here?
First, I come here,
I like to give him
the best education
in the whole world...
Because I don't have any
education in my life, you know.
But some people saying things...
You cannot even write
what I heard sometime.
My sisters, brother.
So it hurt my insides.
That's why for my son
I want to give him education.
That's why I married
an American man.
That's why I bring him.
Then, pretty hard
for his life, my life.
When I was in prison,
when I was charged
with the death penalty,
the prison murder,
I wrote to my mom,
and she wrote back,
"You don't cause us
nothing but trouble."
Then they don't want
to hear from me anymore.
- Gosh.
- Coming from my mother.
And...
That's when you came
into my life.
You, Peggy,
Ranko, David Kakishiba...
Like those are the real heroes.
Not me. You guys are.
Listen, you know,
listen, damnit!
Listen to me, young man.
Somebody up there gave you
a reason to live, goddamnit!
So when did you come back?
About two weeks ago.
I'm not in
the protection program no more.
So that means you're a free man?
Yes.
Getting older, I regret
so much of the pain that
I have put through other people.
I became a disappointment
and disgrace.
Chol, you've been really trying
to keep a low profile.
How has this fire accident
changed you, changed the way
you think about life, if at all?
You've been through so much.
I think...
If you examine my life
from date of my birth,
you're examining a person,
who's been in
enormous amount of pain
that he never asked for to be.
But...
through meeting people
like Mr. K.W. Lee
and through receiving support
from so many numerous
other people,
out of depths of the pain
of somebody else,
humanity, it grows,
and that humanity
is given to you,
pure and unconditionally.
You feel you owe
K.W. Lee your life?
I feel I owe him more than that.
Not just my life.
You reflect back on me,
you're not just
some guy off the street,
not just some prisoner,
but you're a Korean American,
an immigrant,
whose rights been so violated,
and that needs to be corrected.
I would give anything for
Mr. K.W. Lee, I think that...
Mr. K.W. has given me life.
And he has given me
a conscience.
And allowed me to have
humanity to give to others,
when they are in pain.
Chol, thank you so much.
Thank you.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
FEBRUARY 22, 2006
Chol Soo Lee is
an ex-death row inmate.
This is his first public
speaking engagement
since his release from prison.
JUSTICE FOR CHOL SOO LEE
I feel very honored
to be invited here today,
among all of these
distinguished guests here.
I feel like
a bit of a grain of sand
just trying to mix into life.
Thank you very much
for your invitation.
I'd like to start with
something Mr. Gandhi said.
He said:
"Evil, injustice, hatred exist
only insofar as we support them."
"They have no existence
of their own"
"without our cooperation."
The first time he came,
he was very nervous
and he'd written out a speech.
It was very stiff and formal.
And he knew it.
And he just crumpled up
the paper and said, "Fuck it,"
and threw it to the ground and
then just started speaking
from the heart.
The prison is evil.
It destroys every human dignity
and humanity has in a person.
It destroys you.
It destroys your spirit,
it destroys your mind.
And it has destroyed mine,
and I'm trying to rebuild it.
I want to live a life that
would enhance the life of others
as the defense committee and
supporters have done for me,
that are continuing
to still do for me today.
Maybe I get a little lost
in the shuffle sometimes.
But I'm not a hero.
I'm just a human being.
I'm so glad still you're alive!
Your appearance is different.
But you are more intelligent.
You are mature. You are loving.
And he's talking about
taking care of other people.
Chol Soo saw me and he said,
"Mrs. Yoo, I'm doing so well.
Are you proud of me now?"
I think Chol Soo returned
from undiscovered country.
And he is with us.
And that is cause
of celebration.
Somebody up there,
those departed, the ghosts
of Chinese Americans,
Japanese, Filipinos and Koreans
who built this country...
I think
they are telling Chol Soo,
who was caged in San Quentin,
"Hey, Chol Soo, Chol Soo,
keep alive for us."
I don't know
what was going on with him
in the last few months
before he died.
But I do know that he was
in a lot of pain.
I could tell by his voice.
The struggle to just
live and then the emotional
and mental hole that he had.
Yeah, I think he was
probably just getting tired.
He chose to die.
He was offered surgery
for his intestinal problems.
But he said,
"I am going to die."
He endured so many years.
I think he just run out of gas.
When I look back,
he died a hundred deaths
in that goddamned living hell
called the California
prison system!
And even in freedom,
in the free world,
he suffered a thousand deaths!
Sixty-two years seems
too young to die.
But Chol Soo lived so many
lifetimes in those short years.
We benefited so much
from his hardship.
The horror of his case honed
our politics
and our consciousness.
His remarkable life
inspired our own.
I want the people to feel good
about what they did for me.
I want the people who have
helped me to be able to say,
"At least he has put
his life together."
Hopefully I can come back
with my head high and
make them feel like,
"We did the right thing."
Closed Captioning:
Mistral Artist-New York
- Sorry about all the smoke.
- It's alright.
It's alright.
Okay, I have speed.
Let's start from the beginning,
- Might as well.
- Okay.
It didn't look good for you
when they came for your arrest.
You had 41 rounds of live ammo
and a .357 magnum in your room,
you were on probation
for felony theft.
Is that a different issue?
No, I mean, it is
a whole different issue.
A lot of people say...
I was not an angel
on the outside.
At the same time,
I was not the devil.
But whatever I was
on the outside does not justify
to frame a person
to put him in prison
for a murder he did not commit.
That is no excuse.
FREE CHOL SOO LEE
At the time,
I was a couple months
short of my 21st birthday.
I was just a young street punk,
not even thinking
about the time of day.
And I was living in Chinatown.
I used to hang out
around Jackson Street,
and at Mike's pool hall,
which were popular spots
for the Chinatown street gangs.
But I was not bothered
once by them.
I had a quiet personality.
I often felt like
the lone Korean in Chinatown.
When I first met Chol Soo Lee,
he was always smiling.
I think he smiled for us.
He was always smiling.
So at that time,
my older sister,
she worked in a pearl store.
Each time she was going
to open an oyster, Chol Soo,
he would peer over to her
opening and revealing the pearl.
And he asked her about that.
"How do you know there's
gonna be a pearl inside?"
And "what kinds of pearls
are going to come out?"
And he stuck around and
he stuck around 'til closing.
She just felt that he was alone,
and so she just said,
"You wanna come over for
dinner?" And he said yes.
He knew a lot of people.
But he would always be
the only Korean,
and so everybody...
"You mean the Korean guy?"
And we'd just see him.
We'd go out to eat
sometimes after work.
There's once he asked me to go
see his probation officer
with him because he said,
"If I bring this nice Japanese
girl, then they'll think"
"that I have good friends
and think better of me."
I was on probation for theft.
Ever since I arrived
from Korea as a kid,
I didn't like staying home,
so I was out
on the street a lot.
When you're out there,
what are you gonna eat?
You have to steal something,
or do something, right?
By 1973, I was doing odd jobs.
Sometimes I'd work as a barker
for the strip joints
on Broadway.
Those are the guys who stand
in front of the night clubs
trying to lure in the customers.
One night the manager
showed me his gun.
It was the first time
I ever held a gun before.
I asked if I could borrow it.
Back at my place, I was cocking
it back and forth, you know,
messing around with it...
Then accidentally shot the wall.
Five days later, I was arrested.
But when they told me it was
for a murder,
I couldn't believe
what they were saying.
I didn't know nothing
about any murder.
JUNE 3, 1973
Yip Yee Tak was
gunned down execution-style
in front of hundreds
of terrified witnesses.
The shooting occurred around
7:30 pm at the intersection
of Pacific and Grant Avenues.
Eyewitnesses say the victim
was shot from behind in the head
by a Chinese man
in his early 20s.
They said the bullet
I shot into my wall
was shot from the murder weapon.
We ended up with 3 positive
identifications
of Mr. Lee as being
the perpetrator of the killing.
It was regarding
a $10,000 alleged rip-off
by the victim from his own gang.
HIS FEAR OF BEING KILLED CAME TRUE
And they hired Mr. Lee to kill
one of their own members
for taking this money.
It just shocked me that Chol Soo
would have been arrested
for a Chinatown murder.
In Chinatown, people knew that
the Korean didn't do it.
I am a Korean,
and Chinese is Chinese.
And I felt that
eventually this...
which I felt at first was just
a misunderstanding,
would be straightened out
in due time.
JURY SAYS "GUILTY" IN CHINATOWN KILLING
KOREAN CONVICTED IN SAN
FRANCISCO SLAYING GETS LIFE SENTENCE
I had been sentenced
to life in prison
for a crime I did not commit.
It was a quiet trip.
I looked out the window
like it might be
my last time seeing the view.
The deputy had the radio
playing at a low volume,
and there was a song
I still remember hearing
during that drive:
"You're Still a Young Man"
by Tower of Power
I felt very old,
as if life was closing in
on me at age 21.
DEUEL VOCATIONAL INSTITUTION
As soon as I got to the prison,
I was subjected
to my first strip search.
Put your head down.
OK, raise your arms up.
Up higher.
Spread your legs.
Okay, this time
I want you to bend over.
As many times as we had to
repeat this routine,
convicts never felt
indifferent to the degradation
and dehumanization
of such treatment.
This built up
a fire of hell within us.
These are members
of prison gangs,
men so violent
that the maximum-security unit
is divided into sections
for different gangs
to keep them from
attacking each other
and from preying on non-members.
I was at one of California's
most violent prisons
at a time when all the gangs
were at war with each other.
Its nickname was
"Gladiator School."
Within less than one year,
I witnessed a convict
get his head bashed in.
Another killed
on a weight bench.
And one inmate get stabbed
24 times, right out in the open.
This suddenly became my world.
How was I,
an inexperienced,
lone Asian convict,
going to stay alive?
WARNING KEEP HANDS OFF GATE
I followed the first rule of
survival in any prison system:
Show no fear.
This wrongness was so wrong.
What uh...?
What are you
going to do about it?
And I thought,
"I'm going to become that lawyer"
"that will take
that kind of case."
And then at that point,
all I could do was
just like be his friend.
DEAR RANKO,
THE BEAUTIFULEST AND BEST.
FALTA TEXTO
MORE THAN A FRIEND.
I started to have
feelings for her.
But she did not feel
the same way about me.
That could have caused her
to cut me off.
But she didn't.
Instead, Ranko's response
all throughout the years
reflected a struggle for justice
as her main inspiration.
It may not have been
a personal relationship,
but Ranko's friendship was pure
light in my darkened world.
AFTER 4 YEARS IN PRISON
Colorful...
the morning's Sacramento Union!
Good news, great people.
People like K.W. Lee,
award-winning
investigative reporter.
K.W Lee, digging, probing,
tackling the bureaucracy,
infiltrating the unknown.
Read K.W. Lee!
So I learned from
a drug counselor in Chinatown.
He was casually saying,
"Hey, it's a shame that,
the Korean kid got railroaded."
Here, I was looking into a case
which is already four years old.
But I don't leap
into conclusion.
I'm an investigative reporter,
and I follow the smell.
I kept reading
the court records and
things shouted at me.
OFFICIAL COURT REPORTERS
The arresting officer
on the stand
to identify Chol Soo Lee
as the man he arrested, he said,
"There, that Chinese,"
pointing at Chol Soo Lee
in the defense table.
Calling a Korean a Chinese.
Anybody who has a smattering of
understanding of Asian culture
would find it very unreal.
GANGLAND KILLINGS: NO END SEEN
One of the Chinese youths
had a gun
and fired several shots
into another Chinese youth.
Ng, in his 60s, was killed
in the front room of the school
by an Oriental youth
in his early teens.
Killings in Chinatown
are involving
awfully young individuals.
There's been
gangland style murders,
bodies dumped in the bay
where they had been
strangled and bound.
Killings on the street.
The specter of gangs have
frightened some merchants
to close early at night.
Grant Avenue seems empty
of natives or tourists.
San Francisco Chinatown
is a tourist town,
and there have been a dozen
unsolved murders.
And Mayor Alioto was really
getting pressure on the police.
There's always going
to be priorities,
and right now I say
the priority is Chinatown.
It didn't take a genius
to find out what went wrong.
Chinese, Japanese, Koreans,
they all look alike.
These things put the impact
on this street boy,
who had no pressure groups,
no defense groups.
He was completely alone.
How does an Asian
prisoner exist, or
handle or survive a prison,
say like DVI,
which is run by prison gangs?
So for Asians
within a prison system,
their survival depends more on
to avoid aggression
rather than to take action.
But not to be fearful of using
aggression if it's necessary.
Two gangs were fighting over
who ran the poker games.
I was friendly with both.
But the white gang
didn't like that
I associated with
the Mexican gang.
I refused to choose sides.
And soon I learned that
the whites were gonna
come after me.
OCTOBER 8, 1977
In the world of prison,
there is a code of conduct
that is totally different
from normal society.
The convicts' code is clear-cut.
Reputation is everything
in prison.
Any sign of disrespect
could lead to violence.
This code may seem like madness.
I can't even find the words
to explain it so that you,
who live in free society,
could understand my position.
All I knew was that in order
to survive in this world,
I had to follow
the convict's code.
If I hadn't,
I'd be dead.
Inmate Chol Soo Lee
is charged with murder
in the stabbing death
of a fellow prisoner.
Chol Soo Lee killed a member
of the Aryan Brotherhood.
But no matter what,
where the knife came from,
who had it first,
what you were wearing or
what you ate for breakfast...
The fact that you were
in that position to be in prison
all that time for something
you didn't even do?
All of that,
everything you do
is self-defense.
A detective told me
I was charged
with first-degree murder.
It sent chills
throughout my mind.
Until that moment,
I didn't even know
that the man I fought was dead.
And because of my prior
murder conviction,
I would now face
the death penalty.
I was shitting my pants.
Because I was ready to do
a story on Chol Soo Lee.
Then, bang, he was charged
with a second murder!
Now, the picture has changed.
That's when I had to see him.
"Dear Chol Soo Lee:"
"My name is Kyung Won Lee."
"I want to write
about the problems"
"you have run into in America."
"Dear Mr. Kyung Won Lee:"
"I want to thank you
very much for"
"the thoughtful words
I read in your letter."
"Please understand my experience
is not a happy story."
"I would very much wish
to talk with you."
When I found myself in a prison,
that's where I find
a lonely Korean down there.
I am the only Korean reporter
in the mainstream media.
I also felt so alone myself.
So when I look at Chol Soo Lee,
I feel like I met an old friend.
What a good-looking kid.
Really good-looking kid.
He was in a living hell.
But he had some
innate friendliness.
He had that smile.
So we established
some kind of telepathy.
After all these years,
I finally had the chance to say,
"I'm innocent."
He single-handedly gave me hope
when there was no hope.
I was born out of wedlock
during the Korean War.
And sadly for my mother,
she was disinherited
from her family,
so she married an American
soldier and left for America.
And my uncle and auntie
kept me, to raise me in Korea.
It was just after the war,
and we had fallen on hard times.
We would pick up scrap metal
to try and get by.
We didn't eat sometimes
for two or three days.
But when my auntie found
a bowl of rice,
you know who she gave it to?
One small bowl for me,
and one small bowl
for her youngest son.
They were very, very
kind people.
I called my auntie and uncle
"mother" and "father,"
and they treated me
like their own son.
Years later, my mother had
separated from her husband
and came back to Korea.
"This is my son," she said,
"and I'm going
to take him to America."
Ladies and gentlemen,
your flight attendants...
I arrived in San Francisco
on November 14, 1964,
at the age of 12.
My mother showed me
her apartment,
which had a kitchen
with a gas burning stove,
a bathtub with cold
and hot water.
I thought,
"How rich my mother must be
to have such great luxuries."
But I had a lot of difficulty
with English.
The school was mostly geared
toward Chinese immigrants,
and there were no Korean
teachers or counselors.
One day another student
started a fight with me.
They took me
to the principal's office.
But I couldn't explain
that it wasn't my fault,
so I had a tantrum.
I kicked the principal, and
they charged me with battery.
SAN FRANCISCO JUVENILE HALL
When I first went
to juvenile hall,
I guess I was thinking in Korean
that I'm a bad boy now.
Started smoking cigarettes,
trying to act tough
and all that.
If you go to jail,
you must be a bad person,
you know?
One time I was so frustrated
to be in juvenile hall
that I put a towel
around my neck.
And the counselor thought
I was going
to try to commit suicide.
It was not a real suicide.
I was just trying
to get attention
to get out of juvenile hall.
So they sent me
to the psychiatric ward.
They gave me a handful
of medication every day.
But I refused to take it,
so they started
forcing me and gave me shots.
I was at the psychiatric
hospital for three months,
but they released me when
they realized I wasn't crazy.
I just couldn't speak English.
This young boy
was condemned as insane.
There were no support systems,
no counselors,
no school teachers.
Nobody, absolutely
he was on his own.
The criminal justice system
had no incentive
to really find out
about this boy and his cultural
and language background.
Back home, my mother
was working two jobs,
at the cannery and
as a cocktail waitress.
And when she was home,
sometimes she'd beat me.
So I started running away.
One time, I made it
all the way to the ocean.
Maybe I just wanted
to go back to Korea.
I still don't know why
my mother brought me here.
It was just by the grace of God
I have eluded the fate
that fell on him.
Because there's a very thin line
between him and me.
MOST OF HIS AMERICAN LIFE SPENIN CONFINEMENT AS A LONE KOREAN
I was lucky.
He was not lucky.
There are an awful lot
of unlucky people.
Especially Asians.
They have no language.
They couldn't tell their story.
A MISPLACED PERSON'S SAGA AS STRANGE AS
THE KAFKA-LIKE CHARACTER IN "THE TRIAL"
The institutions, the media,
and law enforcement,
the judicial system
have continued to remain
ignorant and insensitive.
And that's why I felt, you know,
it was my calling
to make some small dent
in that wall
of ignorance and insensitivity.
LOST IN A STRANGE CULTURE
Comforting the afflicted
and afflicting the comfortable.
That has been the tradition
of print journalism.
It happened in America,
but only in America...
We can right this wrong.
ALICE-IN-CHINATOWN MURDER CASE
My roommate, Dave Kakishiba,
and I were going to Berkeley.
And we saw ourselves
as activists.
18, 19 years old, you're taking
Asian American Studies classes.
You're talking
about oppression, yeah so,
I guess I fit the bill.
We came across a newspaper article,
and it said something about
"Alice in Chinatown."
And we both said,
"Hey, it sounds
like this man is innocent."
So we went to
the Sacramento Union office
and met K.W. Lee.
There were papers everywhere,
and he had stuff
all over the walls.
And he just spent a couple of
hours just running down
all the details about the case.
We were pretty inspired
by his controlled rage,
if you will.
We asked him, what can we do?
And so he gave us the names
of some of the activists
who had started
a defense committee.
I was just fresh out
from law school.
My favorite subject is
criminal procedure.
And I went to the prison,
to Chol Soo Lee.
And I just asked him,
"Tell me about your life."
He says he was born
during the Korean War.
His birthday is August 15.
That's Korean Independence Day.
His name is Chol Soo,
the most popular Korean name.
He must be some man who has
all the sad history of Korea.
K.W. Lee, Grace Kim and I
decided to form
a defense committee
and help Chol Soo Lee out.
FREE CHOL SOO LEE!
At that time, Korean churches
were the organizing force
in the Korean community.
That's really where the
Chol Soo Lee movement started.
Me and Jay Yoo always went
to the Korean churches together.
So we told them
what's going on now.
Chol Soo's plight is a tragedy,
and we must free him.
He could be
an excellent young leader.
Brothers and sisters,
we must save him.
Thank you.
They all made special donation.
This is definitely
a Korean immigrant body
that is coming together
in Sacramento.
And I'm willing to jump on
anybody's bandwagon!
And then, in the Bay Area,
we were at every community fair,
either getting signatures
or having people sign up,
or just talking about his case.
So, "Free Chol Soo Lee," people
come up, they want one.
Because they're free.
They thought we were giving away
some free food.
We sold hot links.
We did fundraising dances.
All those young people said,
"We're going to do fundraising!"
What they did was a dance party,
a concert...
So it costs lots of money.
So we gave them...
But they could not raise
any money!
They spent all our money!
I had written a poem
about the Chol Soo Lee case.
And I said, "Why don't
we make this into a song?"
"We can get the song
on the radio,"
"and people will find out
about the case!"
SET CHOL SOO FREE
FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY RIGHTS
FIGHT FOR EQUALITY
NO DEATH PENALTY FOR CHOL SOO LEE
A shot rang out in the alley
A man was lying cold dead
Witnesses -three out-of-town tourists
barely recollected
He kind of looked like this one
but they look alike you see
Cops in a hurry want to close the case
so they handcuffed Chol Soo Lee
Many times I asked myself:
"Why are so many people,
total strangers to me,"
"working so hard to get me
out of prison?"
And that kind of
boggled my mind.
I didn't know why they did it.
I was just a prisoner,
and something like that
never happened in my life.
I took this support
in a very personal way.
And I would not understand
until many years later
the enormity of what I'd become
in the eyes of these people.
I had become a cause.
A symbol.
Chol Soo Lee...
His name has been synonymous
within the Korean community
with the fight against injustice
and discrimination.
We needed materials
to walk around in the community
and tell his story.
And it was so hard
to just explain it,
word for word,
what was going in his case.
So I made
this little slide show.
The struggle for Chol Soo's
freedom is also a struggle
of an entire people.
It is a fight for
our own freedom.
Do you know about
Chol Soo Lee's case?
Yes, of course.
First of all,
I know it was not a fair trial.
As a fellow Korean,
I want him to get a fair trial,
so I'm following it.
The broader Asian communities
and the public at large
have also joined
in the struggle.
Demonstrations, hundreds of
people were always there.
Court hearings, hundreds
of people were there.
The Chol Soo Lee movement
had a life of its own.
People of different
nationalities came together.
The first, second and third
generations worked together,
and it gave us resolve.
Blue jeans and Korean dresses
getting together.
NO DEATH PENALTY
CHOL SOO IS INNOCENIt may be one of
the first times that
so many different people united
around one single issue.
How do you feel about
this community support?
I feel very good that
so many Korean people
and all different class of people
could relate to me.
My deepest sincerest thanks
to everyone
that give me
their support and the time.
And hopefully that
I could relate to them as well.
And the support
they are giving me,
that they would do, maybe,
for other Chol Soo Lees
possibly in the streets,
- running loose now.
- Not just yourself.
I received a number of visitors.
I tried to smile and relate
to them as best as I could.
But it wasn't always easy.
A convict may have
his own personal integrity
and humanity burning within him.
But then it's a struggle
to hold onto them.
His own survival
must guide his actions,
as he is slowly
institutionalized, transformed.
I never discussed these feelings
with my supporters.
Seeing the movement's good will,
I didn't want to bring
dark clouds over them.
We have in our studio
this morning, Leonard Weinglass,
who's famous
for being the counsel in the
Chicago Seven conspiracy trial.
He defended Angela Davis.
Mr. Weinglass, what is it that
interested you
in the Chol Soo Lee case?
When the Korean community
came to me
and brought me the records
of the Chol Soo Lee case,
I became convinced that
his was a case of an injustice.
This is Josiah Thompson
in the case
of The People vs. Chol Soo Lee.
This happened
in the middle of Chinatown.
There must have been
30, 40 Asian people around.
Not one was ever interviewed
by the police.
Not one ever testified at trial.
All you had testifying at trial,
they were all Anglos.
I hit up everybody I knew,
looking for witnesses.
And Tink couldn't do that.
You really couldn't have a
white investigator do that.
But I could.
Ranko had this witness, Mr. X.
I know for a fact
that it wasn't Chol Soo.
MURDER WITNESS STEPS FORWARD
Prior to the shooting
living in Chinatown,
I've seen Chol Soo and
I've seen this other person.
Witness X saw the killer
throw away the gun...
And he was not willing
to testify in open court.
Why?
Because he'd be killed.
It's too frightening.
Too frightening for me...
for me to risk, you know,
my family's lives.
It was such a brutal
public murder.
You never get witnesses
from the community
from that kind of shooting.
Chinatown residents are
most hesitant to talk about
what they've seen,
what they've heard,
or even what they think.
But then some clerk
had made a mistake
and had turned over
a bunch of court papers.
Those papers contained
some new things.
Something about this "Steve"
and "Point Richmond."
And so I went to Point Richmond.
And we asked around and finally
we got the name "Morris"
to connect with the "Steve."
And when we finally reached him
in Los Angeles, he astonished us
by telling us that
he was only 12 feet away
at the time of the killing.
A percipient witness closer than
any other witness to the case,
had been known to the police,
and his very existence had not
been revealed to the defense.
I'd read something
about hypnosis,
and how hypnosis
would bring back details,
of particular memories.
So the doctor starts with this
kind of sing-song tone,
and counts down from 15.
And wow!
I still remember that
as unbelievable.
Steve says,
"I can see a lion."
That lion was part of
this giant mural
that you encounter
as you drive into Chinatown.
So then he says, "I was standing
outside the Ping Yuen Bakery."
INVESTIGATOR'S RE-ENACTMEN"Then I saw that Asian guy
fire the first shot."
"Hit the victim in the chest."
"And then he spun around,"
"and the killer put a bullet
in the back of his head."
The autopsy report showed that
he was shot in the chest,
just above the right nipple.
The press reports,
they're all wrong!
TWICE IN THE BACK
He saw it the way
it really happened,
not like everybody else who's
just reading the newspaper.
That establishes his bonafides!
So I brought Morris up,
put him in the courtroom,
turned on the tape recorder.
And I said, "Steve, you've just
seen Chol Soo Lee."
"Was Chol Soo Lee
the person you saw kill"
"Yip Yee Tak
in front of your eyes?"
No, he wasn't.
He said, "No, he's too little."
I'm positive.
And he's beautiful.
"The killer was kind of ugly."
"Thank you, Steve."
I turned off the tape recorder,
and we've got it.
NEW WITNESS SAYS IT WASN'T LEE
Judge Lawrence Karlton declares
the Chinatown conviction
invalid.
NEW TRIAL ORDERED IN CHINATOWN KILLING
But the joy was short-lived.
San Francisco prosecutors
immediately appealed.
I remained in prison
as I awaited my murder trial
in the prison-yard case.
But this was
a happy time for me.
So many supporters
came to my hearings.
And I felt like
I had gone on vacation
from the violent,
lonely world of prison.
"My dear Chol Soo:"
"I have sent
a package of reading books."
"Also, can we send you
a jar of kimchi?"
"Even an animal in a zoo is
entitled to some favorite food."
"Dear Mr. Kyung Won:"
"I would much love to eat
some kimchi as well as some"
"other Korean food with some
rice that is cooked right,"
"but I don't think people
here would permit it."
"Thank you for the books
I also received earlier today."
"With each letter I receive from
you, I find my spirits rising."
"Chol Soo:"
"You represent a tiny people
with a sad but heroic history."
"You are not just yourself.
You represent us all."
For the ones that took the time
to go and meet Chol Soo, wow.
That kind of personal contact
made such a difference.
I started corresponding,
and was just so moved
by him responding,
writing his handwritten letters.
And his script was
just beautiful.
His Korean, I think,
is kind of street Korean,
like his English is
street English.
So I think it's kind of cute.
I thought it was very charming.
Yeah, he had
his own way of talking.
He made smoking cigarettes
look cool.
I believed in him as a person,
I believed in him as a leader.
It was hard to believe that,
not long ago,
I used to hope so much
for a single letter
from my mother or from Ranko.
And when the guards would
walk down the tier,
handing out mail,
I would wait with anticipation.
During these times,
there would be total silence
in the whole prison.
This silence...
was the same in every prison.
But now, here I was,
staying up late,
just to respond to all
letters from across the country,
and even South Korea.
They saw me,
and called me by my name.
They said,
"Chol Soo, don't give up."
"We're fighting with you."
The Chol Soo Lee
Defense committee is
a broad-based organization
made up of Koreans and
other Asian Americans.
We have defense committees
active from New York to L.A.,
WE WANT A FAIR TRIAL
in both Korea and Japan.
We're all unified
around a common goal,
which is to free Chol Soo Lee.
SET CHOL SOO FREE
UNITE TO FREE CHOL SOO LEE
And Chol Soo's mother,
she entered in the support
movement more reluctantly.
She probably thought
that her son was just
an unrepentant criminal.
And it took a process
to draw her out to support
her own son in this movement.
And then she came out
like a storm.
Why is innocent boy locked up?
Taxpayers' wasted money,
they lock him up.
If my son's guilty,
I'm not going to defend my son.
If he's guilty,
he has to deserve.
But he's innocent.
Yes, I believe he's innocent.
This is the gas chamber
at San Quentin Prison.
Chol Soo Lee may be the first
Korean in the United States
to die here.
It's painted in this weird
sort of chartreuse color.
A hockey puck of cyanide
is dropped into a tub of acid,
and cyanide fumes are given off.
If you breathe cyanide, you die.
AFTER 6 YEARS IN PRISON
THE TRIAL FOR THE PRISON-YARD
KILLING BEGINS IN STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA.
These people feel Chol Soo Lee
is not getting
a fair shake
within the justice system.
It was at
Deuel Vocational Institution
where Lee killed
another prisoner.
We really want to show
the people, the judge,
the court system,
the prison system,
that we're continued
and determined to fight!
Stockton was
a pretty white place.
All of a sudden,
all these people come.
I think they were
kind of blown away.
It's important to show support
whenever there's a trial.
The jury and the judge can see
the Korean community,
they are ready
to accept this man,
and feel that they can return
him to the community.
Depending on what happens,
it could be anywhere from
a death sentence for Chol Soo,
all the way to immediate release
back to the community.
So everything hangs
in the balance.
Chol's a young Asian, was caught
literally in the cross-fire
of gang warfare,
which was racial warfare.
It's a classic case
of self-defense.
Coming down to self-survival,
there's no place to run
within the prison system.
Judge Papas was
very antagonistic.
And he resented the presence
of people supporting Chol Soo.
I have seen very few Caucasians
in this room, very frankly.
You see Caucasians in the jury
box. I'm afraid that's where it matters.
When I went out to the courtroom
and look at all
the jury members,
and the faces I seen
was the same kind of faces
I've seen in Sacramento in 1974.
The panel of jurors.
And at that time,
I informed my attorney that
I felt this whole case is gonna
be another mockery of justice.
The jury found Lee guilty
of first-degree murder
and sentenced him to die
in the gas chamber.
The judge came down and ruled
the death penalty for Chol Soo.
We're not finished,
we're going to keep on fighting.
- Freedom for Chol Soo Lee!
- Freedom for Chol Soo Lee!
Leonard, what's to be gained
from all the support? Anything?
You make it sound contrived.
These people came because
they wanted to come,
so they're doing it because
they feel it's right.
MOTHER OF CHOL SOO LEE
CALIFORNIA STATE PRISON SAN QUENTIN
CONDEMNED ROW
First of all,
it's hard for me to comprehend
that I am on death row
for a crime I did not commit.
It almost feels like
sometimes you're dying
just each day
as you live, but...
This experience of working with
the people on outside has been
one of the most tremendous
and beautiful experiences
of my life.
The poor man cannot expect
to get justice by himself,
but he needs people to...
to try and get justice.
That's it.
During my years on death row,
the State of California
did not execute anyone.
But two men committed suicide.
I came to realize that
the system was designed so that
the condemned man
would kill himself,
before his execution.
By making him go through
his depression alone.
And he might save
the system time and effort
by taking his own life.
Every convict on death row
thought about
taking his own life.
But I never burdened
people on the outside
with such dark thoughts.
Instead,
I always expressed my gratitude
and encouraged them
not to give up,
because this would be
a long fight.
I would be on death row
for three more years
before my retrial started.
AFTER 9 YEARS IN PRISON
LEE HOPES TO ESCAPE DEATH ROW IN RETRIAL
What has these past 9 years
been like for you in prison?
I think...
This is
a very difficult question.
What has happened over 9 years?
What has it been like?
I think in a sense that...
I feel very bitter that I've
been in prison all this time
for a murder I did not commit.
But at the same time,
I'm very grateful
that my case has become
an educational experience
for the Asian community.
My time that I've spent in
prison is not going to waste,
but is working in a positive
sense to educate Asian people
that we can work together
when we want to.
I had become
an attorney by that time
and I joined the legal team.
And we retained Tony Serra
and Stuart Hanlon.
I was worried.
I think I didn't meet Tony
Serra until almost trial time.
This man, who does not look
like your image of a lawyer...
I didn't know how
he would get on board
if he had not been
to these meetings.
And then he appears!
It's like fiction.
When I go into court,
I'll look at the jury.
I won't say a word
and they're starting to wonder.
Then I'd clap.
I call that the "zen slap"
because it'll change
their focus.
They've just heard
a different argument.
That kind of cleanses them,
it opens their mind,
it purifies them.
We started opening arguments by
taking a picture of a mug book.
The San Francisco
Police Department
had a book back in 1973
called the
"Chinatown Gang Mug Book."
And the cover of the book
had a cartoon that was a cross
in my mind between
a Fu Manchu character
and a Ho Chi Minh character.
A total racist caricature.
And we argued to the jury
this case started
in this kind of racism.
What that picture says
to these white witnesses,
"It's only an Asian,
it's only a chink."
The killing occurred
on the corner of
Grant and Pacific
on a crowded Sunday
in Chinatown.
The killer went east
on Pacific Street.
He threw his gun down the alley.
And they find out that
Chol Soo Lee had been involved
in a gun going off in his
hotel room incident
two days earlier.
The police ran
a ballistics check.
And lo and behold, the gun
that fired the murder bullets
also fired the bullet
found in that hotel room.
Okay, if that's true,
Chol Soo Lee is guilty.
But the class characteristics of
the two bullets were different.
Class characteristics have to do
with the lands and grooves
that are carved into the bullet
by its passage
through the barrel.
The class characteristics
didn't match.
That's enough to throw out
the test right there.
You don't have
to go any further.
Now whether he did it
on purpose,
whether he did it
'cause he's sloppy,
whether he did it because
they had to get somebody,
none of us ever knows.
We were aware of that error
early in the investigation.
And that error
was made known in discovery
to defense counsel
way before the first trial.
But the key was that that locked
the police into Chol Soo Lee.
Once they realized
in their mind that
his gun had killed this person,
they didn't care
about anybody else.
They assumed he was guilty.
I saw how they had gone off
in the wrong direction
because of the ballistics.
I saw that their eyewitnesses
were very fallible,
very easy to discredit.
The main prosecution witnesses,
Lennon and Mill...
were at this corner, 45 feet
away from the shooting.
One factor that never
came out in the first trial:
Dave Lennon in 1969
happened to be a guard
at Youth Guidance Center
in San Francisco.
There was a 17-year-old
Asian kid
who was the only Asian kid
when Lennon was there.
It so happened that Asian kid
was Chol Soo Lee.
And it so happened the picture
that David Lennon picked out
the night of the killing,
as a possible suspect,
was a picture taken in 1969.
As soon as that was brought
to his attention,
he backed off his ID,
and he didn't remember that
he had seen him and interacted
with him at a past time.
So there went Witness No. 1.
Witness No. 2 was Andy Mill.
He was a world-class skier.
At that point,
he was 20 years old.
He thought he was the greatest
thing in the world.
And he was so sure
that his initial description
of the killer had to be right.
It's a guy
with no mustache who's 5-10 who
I saw for a second and a half
from 45 feet away.
He identified a person that
in no way could be Chol Soo Lee.
Chol Soo Lee is short,
he was 5-2.
They identified a person
who was 5-10.
Their witnesses were
white tourists
that were diagonally
across the street.
This was a classic case,
it's called
cross-racial identification.
You don't distinguish facial
features of other racial groups.
But we finally got
an Asian witness
who'd been at the scene
to come forward and testify.
After the shooting, the killer
went east on Pacific Street.
We ended up approximately
here in Beckett Alley.
Stephen Low was walking
up the street,
and the killer went
right past him here,
at the corner of Beckett Alley.
Low was really
the closest witness.
STEPHEN LOW KILLER
He said, "I was there."
"I didn't go to the police
because I was afraid."
"And I'm willing to come
forward now 'cause"
"I'm separated from
the Chinatown scene."
Stephen Low was a key witness
'cause he was the only
Asian eyewitness
who would say,
"I know it isn't this man."
It was an easy case
to see transparently
that they had the wrong person.
If the system really was honest,
they would have just dumped
the case instead of trying
a second time to convict
an innocent person.
And that really is
the heart of the outrage.
GANG MURDER RETRIAL GOES TO JURY
SEPTEMBER 3, 1982
We were waiting
and pacing outside,
and one of my friends had gone
to Jack in the Box.
I just happened to be there.
And so I went into court when
they said they had a verdict.
So the courtroom fills up,
but we have to wait
20 minutes to have about
30 armed sheriffs brought down
because the judge
is really afraid that,
if it's a guilty verdict,
there's going to be
pandemonium in the court.
So they rise. It's very formal.
And everything is very quiet.
If the jury looks at you,
that's good.
If the jury comes out
and won't look at you,
that's horrible!
I didn't know
who was going to win.
I warned my people,
"Even if we win,
don't shout loud. Be quiet."
The judge said,
"Do you have a verdict?"
And the jury foreman
says, "Yes."
And they give it to this clerk.
She reads the verdict form,
which seemed like
it took forever.
"People of
the state of California,"
"Superior Court
of San Francisco,"
"People vs. Chol Soo Lee,
case number blah blah blah..."
And then it goes to the part,
"We the jury find the defendant"
And she stops.
I only remember hearing
the words...
"Not."
Yeah!
We won!
Won!
We won!
I can't control myself.
Innocent until proven guilty
and reasonable doubt.
And we discussed that
and brought it up, and used it,
and tried to keep it
in our minds.
Well, after almost five years
on the scene,
I just feel very numb.
But I am exhilarated,
obviously.
This is the outcome that
any reporter would be proud of.
You have just achieved
the impossible.
People just jump up and yell!
It's chaos in the courtroom.
It was so thrilling.
"MY VICTORY IS YOURS"
When he was acquitted,
he wanted us to know
that the case was more
than just about him.
Chol addressed everybody
in the court
and said what was
really obvious,
that this was a victory for
the Asian community
and not just for him.
And he says, "Thank you."
He thanks everyone.
Then his arm goes out
right under my nose.
He pointed at the prosecutor,
started screaming at him,
"You knew all along
I was innocent!"
"You know you're at fault!"
Oh boy, I forget
his exact words but
they were loud and
they were accusatory.
So far none of them
has admitted that...
the wrongful imprisonment
of these years.
Not the police department,
not the prosecutor.
I think for me to feel a little
bit of justice out of this line,
that the people responsible for
putting me in this prison
admit to their wrongdoing.
I just hope and pray
that the Korean community and
the Oriental people
that have come out in his
support and believe in him,
will support him
once he is released
and hopefully lead him in
the right direction this time.
Your story is definitely
public outcry.
How do you feel about
being a cause or a symbol?
For too long a time, I think
Asians have been subjected to
racial injustice
in the history of America and...
I think this time, the Asian
community came forth and said,
"Enough is enough."
MARCH 28, 1983
Moments before
he walked into freedom,
he felt that he couldn't live up
to the Chol Soo Lee
that people expected.
VOICE OF STUART HANLON
I remember standing up
with him, going to the door,
and saying,
"Well, let's go find out."
Stuart told me,
"There are a lot of news media
people waiting for you."
"If you're not ready
to face them,"
"we can go out
through the back door."
And I told him,
"No..."
"I will walk through
the front door."
Chol Soo Lee,
can we talk to you for a minute?
It's been 10 years,
how do you feel today?
I feel very great
and very thankful
for all of the support
people have given me,
especially to Mr. Jay Kun Yoo
out of Sacramento,
and I'm very grateful
for the support and trust
that people have given me
to free me on this day today.
Hi, Chol Soo!
Oh, that's wonderful,
that's wonderful!
I told him, "This is your life."
"This is just your life.
It's not charmed."
"It's not burdened.
It's not cursed."
"This is the life
you get to have."
And that's...
You know, it's a big deal.
Can you make "V" sign for us?
By the way, Chol Soo,
how old are you now?
- I'm 50 years old.
- I'll be damned.
And I've been out of prison
for 20 years, almost...
- Now.
- I'll be damned.
Time flies fast, isn't it?
And when you look back...
You were in prison,
how many years total?
- 10 years.
- Yeah, 10 years.
When you came out, was it
really difficult in many ways?
- Yes, it was because...
- Why?
Nobody told me
that I was this famous guy.
He went on, like a tour,
like a celebrity.
All these people recognize me.
These young girls were coming up
asking for autographs.
We went to Hawaii with Chol Soo.
We met
Hawaiian supporters there.
Everyone welcomed us
and it was joyous.
He was asked to go
to a jazz festival event.
You know, so they're playing
their jazz thing, right?
Chol Soo said, "This is
worse than being in prison."
"We got to go,
get me out of here."
So, you know, that's hard work.
He had to do things like that.
5 MONTHS AFTER RELEASE
PROSECUTORS OFFER CHOL SOO A
PLEA DEAL IN THE PRISON-YARD CASE.
And they said, to remain free,
let us compromise...
Plead guilty
to second-degree murder,
and there'd be no probation,
no parole.
It'd be unconditional.
So I plead guilty instead of
facing another challenge
in the legal system.
Lee acted in self-defense.
He never should have been there.
And this is the clearest example
of the system not working
'cause what it took was
10 years in prison,
an entire community of people
fighting years and years,
going through many courts,
getting the best lawyers
in our country to fight for him.
That's what it took
to get him out.
THE MULTI-SERVICES CENTER FOR KOREANS
Multi-Service Center
for Koreans, may I help you?
These days,
Chol Soo Lee can be found
in a conventional work setting.
As a staff member of
the Multi-Service Center
for Koreans in San Francisco,
he continues to keep his ties
with the Asian community.
During the weekends, I usually
try to visit senior citizens
to show my respect
and thanks to them.
I feel real great to see them
and thank them in person
and to receive
their warm welcome.
Just type your name.
Just as if you were typing.
See now, when you write this,
I can tell
where your English is bad.
Keep pushing until you've
erased what you don't want, see?
I got him a job as a salesman
at a computer retailer.
It went well for a few months,
but then he quit.
I asked the boss why he quit.
He said he overslept
and couldn't show up on time
in the morning.
There was a movie
that was made...
James Woods with a ponytail,
that was supposed
to be Tony Serra.
They really portrayed
the community as sort of props.
Ah, it looks like you've become
a symbol for your community.
May I get a ride with you guys?
Go ahead, Shu.
Be important.
I was so furious.
This victory came about because
of a grassroots movement.
So many, many people
were involved.
We went to UC Berkeley.
I had a couple of Defense
Committee people with me.
They asked me to go up
and say something.
I never been in front of nobody
to speak, anything like that.
So what should I say?
They said just go up there,
tell 'em to be good and
that's it.
I went up there... "Well",
"Do good, study hard,
thank you."
I'm walking back
and all the students
looking at me, what an idiot!
After all the fanfare,
another friend,
who was also
in the Defense Committee,
was able to get him a job
as a janitor.
But for Chol Soo,
going from being
this leader of a movement
to suddenly being told
to clean offices up.
It was hard for him.
I think I was very, very lonely.
Whenever I go out with people,
I have a good time.
But after it's over...
I'm by myself, you know,
like I'm back in prison.
I think that there were
a few people trying
to give him advice.
He's got to live
the square life.
He owes that to the community.
You're gonna really disappoint
a lot of people,
if you fuck up.
He was really,
really struggling.
He felt there was this huge
expectation from the community
about how he should be
after he got out.
And he wanted to be that.
But then he also had
all these demons.
When I came out of prison,
I think it was the expectation
that I could be
successful in life,
lead a normal life,
which was difficult,
especially when you have been
in prison for 10 years,
spending 4 years of that
on death row.
It's difficult to come out here,
to say, "I'm normal."
He also wanted to party.
That was a little
uncomfortable for me.
I mean I get it,
and at the same time,
I'm not sure that we should be
enabling him to do that.
He wanted some kind of relief.
He wanted drugs.
He wanted liquor.
And when you give
that person drugs,
and people unfortunately did
because they thought
they were being his friend,
you end up with a drug addict.
Drugs was everywhere.
The cocaine.
I started smoking it,
I was smoking
sometimes a quarter ounce
to half ounce a day.
That was impossible
for any person to live.
Use that much cocaine.
I don't know how my body
could tolerate that much drugs.
And it got worse and worse...
And I was back on the streets.
He comes to our law office,
and he begs for money.
And I said,
"No, it's not right."
Why didn't you do anything
before you ran out of money?
He should have worked.
You have to work.
Don't try to depend on somebody.
He came over one day,
and he was yelling at me.
He needed money, he needed
a connection to get drugs,
he needed cocaine.
He couldn't continue like this,
I owed it to him.
He went on and on and on,
and he punched the wall,
and then he pulled a knife.
And he started
moving towards me.
I pulled a gun and I said,
"You have to put
the knife down and leave."
One night he scares me,
he comes banging on the door
because he wants money.
So I had some rolled quarters
and a change jar.
And I gave that to him
and I said,
"Don't ever come back here..."
"uninvited again."
She warned me about Chol Soo,
deep into drugs.
I was acting
almost as his father.
And he really felt guilty
about what he was doing.
And I think he was trying
to avoid me at that time.
I went back to prison in 1990,
and did 18 months
on a drug possession charge.
I came back to San Francisco
in July of 1991.
I had a pretty solid reputation
from being in prison
and stuff like that.
So I started getting
involved with
some of the Chinatown gangs.
For the first time in my life.
CHOL SOO LEE SEVERELY BURNED IN HOUSE FIRE
I had direct orders to do
the arson for this house.
What happened was that...
I slipped on the floor and
all the gasoline that was there
soaked all onto my clothes.
I don't know
what set the fire, but
I saw myself burning and
everything around me burning.
I was thinking to myself,
you got maybe
another 10, 15 seconds,
and I don't think
you're gonna make it after that.
I forced the door open,
and got myself out of there.
First thing I did,
I rolled over,
put out any fire
that may still be in me.
After that,
everything just went black.
During that first month or so,
there was nothing but pain.
A pain beyond endurance.
And I remember that
I had to scream out loud.
If there ever is hell,
then I know
what type of pain that
could be inflicted
upon a person.
Wish I had not survived.
FEDERAL PRISON
ROCHESTER, MINNESOTA
"My dear Chol Soo:"
"I want you to fill
this aching gap for me."
"There's much confusion,
disappointment and suspicion"
"among those who
have supported our cause."
"They want to know
what happened and why."
"Those of us who have been
by your side"
"through all these years"
"are bound together
for better or worse,"
"if our fleeting existence
on earth"
"has any meaning at all."
CHOL SOO AGREES TO TESTIFY AGAINSTHE GANG THAT HIRED HIM FOR THE ARSON.
THEN HE ENTERS FEDERAL WITNESS PROTECTION.
12 YEARS AFTER THE ARSON
How have you been living?
I worked as a janitor.
I worked as a car salesman.
How was it?
- That was pretty tough, I...
- Yeah, I know.
You are not a salesman type.
No, but I think
a lot of the sales people
got very scared of me, you know?
This guy is too
mean-looking now, you know?
Why can't they do something
with your face?
My doctor said they would do
a face transplant.
You know,
from a dead person's face?
I told them, no.
This is the face I got.
I die with it, I die with it.
When you run away
the first time,
what was the reason
why you run away?
It was my mother.
She beat me every time
she had a chance.
- Why?
- I don't know, I don't...
Ask Doris. She'd tell you.
She could tell you.
Chol Soo's mom talked about
her birth dream.
Birth dream?
During pregnancy,
a woman has a dream.
Chol Soo's mom said
in her dream,
a snake chased her.
She kept running away from it,
but it caught her and bit her.
It bit her, and even though
she chopped it up with a knife,
it wouldn't let her go.
She told me
Chol Soo's last name is Song.
- Song. His father.
- His father.
She said
she was raped by Mr. Song.
Because he was a child born
of rape, she really hated him.
Mrs. Lee, was Chol Soo
really a bad boy?
No...
He's a kind little boy.
- He's a kind boy?
- Yes.
Why did I come here?
First, I come here,
I like to give him
the best education
in the whole world...
Because I don't have any
education in my life, you know.
But some people saying things...
You cannot even write
what I heard sometime.
My sisters, brother.
So it hurt my insides.
That's why for my son
I want to give him education.
That's why I married
an American man.
That's why I bring him.
Then, pretty hard
for his life, my life.
When I was in prison,
when I was charged
with the death penalty,
the prison murder,
I wrote to my mom,
and she wrote back,
"You don't cause us
nothing but trouble."
Then they don't want
to hear from me anymore.
- Gosh.
- Coming from my mother.
And...
That's when you came
into my life.
You, Peggy,
Ranko, David Kakishiba...
Like those are the real heroes.
Not me. You guys are.
Listen, you know,
listen, damnit!
Listen to me, young man.
Somebody up there gave you
a reason to live, goddamnit!
So when did you come back?
About two weeks ago.
I'm not in
the protection program no more.
So that means you're a free man?
Yes.
Getting older, I regret
so much of the pain that
I have put through other people.
I became a disappointment
and disgrace.
Chol, you've been really trying
to keep a low profile.
How has this fire accident
changed you, changed the way
you think about life, if at all?
You've been through so much.
I think...
If you examine my life
from date of my birth,
you're examining a person,
who's been in
enormous amount of pain
that he never asked for to be.
But...
through meeting people
like Mr. K.W. Lee
and through receiving support
from so many numerous
other people,
out of depths of the pain
of somebody else,
humanity, it grows,
and that humanity
is given to you,
pure and unconditionally.
You feel you owe
K.W. Lee your life?
I feel I owe him more than that.
Not just my life.
You reflect back on me,
you're not just
some guy off the street,
not just some prisoner,
but you're a Korean American,
an immigrant,
whose rights been so violated,
and that needs to be corrected.
I would give anything for
Mr. K.W. Lee, I think that...
Mr. K.W. has given me life.
And he has given me
a conscience.
And allowed me to have
humanity to give to others,
when they are in pain.
Chol, thank you so much.
Thank you.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
FEBRUARY 22, 2006
Chol Soo Lee is
an ex-death row inmate.
This is his first public
speaking engagement
since his release from prison.
JUSTICE FOR CHOL SOO LEE
I feel very honored
to be invited here today,
among all of these
distinguished guests here.
I feel like
a bit of a grain of sand
just trying to mix into life.
Thank you very much
for your invitation.
I'd like to start with
something Mr. Gandhi said.
He said:
"Evil, injustice, hatred exist
only insofar as we support them."
"They have no existence
of their own"
"without our cooperation."
The first time he came,
he was very nervous
and he'd written out a speech.
It was very stiff and formal.
And he knew it.
And he just crumpled up
the paper and said, "Fuck it,"
and threw it to the ground and
then just started speaking
from the heart.
The prison is evil.
It destroys every human dignity
and humanity has in a person.
It destroys you.
It destroys your spirit,
it destroys your mind.
And it has destroyed mine,
and I'm trying to rebuild it.
I want to live a life that
would enhance the life of others
as the defense committee and
supporters have done for me,
that are continuing
to still do for me today.
Maybe I get a little lost
in the shuffle sometimes.
But I'm not a hero.
I'm just a human being.
I'm so glad still you're alive!
Your appearance is different.
But you are more intelligent.
You are mature. You are loving.
And he's talking about
taking care of other people.
Chol Soo saw me and he said,
"Mrs. Yoo, I'm doing so well.
Are you proud of me now?"
I think Chol Soo returned
from undiscovered country.
And he is with us.
And that is cause
of celebration.
Somebody up there,
those departed, the ghosts
of Chinese Americans,
Japanese, Filipinos and Koreans
who built this country...
I think
they are telling Chol Soo,
who was caged in San Quentin,
"Hey, Chol Soo, Chol Soo,
keep alive for us."
I don't know
what was going on with him
in the last few months
before he died.
But I do know that he was
in a lot of pain.
I could tell by his voice.
The struggle to just
live and then the emotional
and mental hole that he had.
Yeah, I think he was
probably just getting tired.
He chose to die.
He was offered surgery
for his intestinal problems.
But he said,
"I am going to die."
He endured so many years.
I think he just run out of gas.
When I look back,
he died a hundred deaths
in that goddamned living hell
called the California
prison system!
And even in freedom,
in the free world,
he suffered a thousand deaths!
Sixty-two years seems
too young to die.
But Chol Soo lived so many
lifetimes in those short years.
We benefited so much
from his hardship.
The horror of his case honed
our politics
and our consciousness.
His remarkable life
inspired our own.
I want the people to feel good
about what they did for me.
I want the people who have
helped me to be able to say,
"At least he has put
his life together."
Hopefully I can come back
with my head high and
make them feel like,
"We did the right thing."
Closed Captioning:
Mistral Artist-New York