Chol Soo Lee was the victim of one of San Francisco’s most egregious miscarriages of justice — and one of the city’s most complicated heroes.
When Chol Soo Lee was 12 years old, he left the only home he’d ever known to move to San Francisco. He was born during the Korean War, and his mother left South Korea to find them a better life. When he joined her, though, he found only misery.
Curious — Lee said he’d never held a gun before — he’d asked a co-worker if he could borrow his pistol. Lee took the gun home and, while playing around with it, accidentally discharged a live round into the wall. Police came when someone called 911 about shots fired, but left after Lee explained the mishap.
The three primary witnesses who testified were white tourists. The arresting officer said in court that Lee was “Chinese.” The verdict barely made a ripple in mainstream news, but word was starting to circulate in the Korean American community that Lee had been wrongfully convicted. Sacramento Union reporter K.W. Lee began investigating the case — and met with Chol Soo Lee to hear his side of the story. The men felt a sense of kinship, outsiders in a world so often hostile to them.
The “Free Chol Soo Lee” movement was underway. Korean American churches became ground zero for fundraising and outreach. Activists set up booths at markets and parks. One activist laughed as she recalled in the documentary that people kept coming up thinking it was free food; non-Korean speakers didn’t know what “Chol Soo Lee” meant.
The courtroom, filled with Lee’s supporters, erupted into cheers and tears. Before being escorted out of the room, Lee was allowed to briefly address the gallery. “One truth of this case is I am innocent,” he declared. “That fact has never been disputed, no matter how many witnesses they put on.”Courtesy of Grant Din
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