This story of a miscarriage of justice is told with enormous sensitivity, intelligence and insight by documentary-makers Julie Ha and Eugene Yi. Their subject is Chol Soo Lee, who was falsely accused of murder in 1973 aged 20 and served 10 years in prison, four on death row. His case sparked a social justice movement that brought together long-haired hippy students, patent-leather-handbag carrying pensioners from California’s Korean churches and the wider Asian American community.
Lee was accused of killing Yip Yee Tak, a gang leader shot dead in San Francisco’s Chinatown. He was arrested after some spectacularly numbnuts copwork (officers initially described Lee as Chinese American; he was born in Korea). The whole of Chinatown seemed to know the police had the wrong man; nevertheless, Lee was convicted on the eyewitness testimony of white tourists. His case became a cause after reporting by the wonderfully charismatic Korean-American investigative journalist KW Lee.
