Chol Soo Lee

Chol Soo Lee (이철수)
Head-and-shoulders portrait in black and white of Chol Soo Lee. Photograph attributed to K.W. Lee.
Chol Soo Lee at Deuel Vocational Institute, California (1977, photo by interviewer K. W. Lee)
Born(1952-08-15)August 15, 1952[1][2]: 255 
DiedDecember 2, 2014(2014-12-02) (aged 62)
NationalityKorean
Known for1983 exoneration from 1973 death sentence murder conviction

Chol Soo Lee (August 15, 1952 – December 2, 2014) was a Korean American immigrant who was wrongfully convicted for the 1973 murder of Yip Yee Tak, a San Francisco Chinatown gang leader, and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, he was sentenced to death for the killing of another prisoner, Morrison Needham, though Chol Soo claimed self-defense. Chol Soo served ten years of his sentence for the killing of Yip Yee Tak, of which he was later acquitted, eight of those on death row. Investigative reporting by K. W. Lee sparked the formation of the Free Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee, which spurred a national pan-Asian movement. Chol Soo finally won his freedom in 1983 through the help of the Free Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee and Tony Serra.

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  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference People-v-Lee was invoked but never defined (see the help page).