Ruchell Cinque Magee (1939 – October 17, 2023) was an American man who spent most of his life in prison.[1] He pled guilty to aggravated kidnapping in the August 7, 1970 Marin County Civic Center courthouse attacks in San Rafael, California. Judge Harold Haley was killed in that attack, as were all of those involved in taking him and other hostages from the courthouse, with the exception of Magee—the only black survivor of the event.
Born in rural Louisiana, when he was 16, Magee was convicted in 1955 of attempted rape of a 22-year-old woman after a one-day trial, and sentenced to hard labor. Paroled in 1962, he moved to Los Angeles and was convicted in 1963 of kidnapping and robbery in an incident with his cousin that court records say involved a loaded gun, a moving car that had been reported stolen, and a $10 marijuana deal. Because of the prior rape conviction, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. While serving that sentence at San Quentin State Prison, he was a witness in court for another inmate and participated in the Marin Civic Center armed taking of hostages, which resulted in his second life sentence.
Magee was imprisoned between the ages of 16 and 83, when he was released in 2023 under California's compassionate release law passed that year. Becoming a "jailhouse lawyer" in his quest to prove the kidnapping and robbery conviction was unjust, he was recognized as an activist and advocate for Black prisoners, as well as a vexatious litigant known for disruptive and abusive courtroom behavior.