Chol Soo Lee

Wrongly convicted of murder

• Born: August 15, 1952
• Birthplace: Seoul, Republic of Korea
• Place of death: San Francisco, California

Significance: Chol Soo Lee was a Korean immigrant to the United States who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1973. Investigative reporting spurred a campaign to set him free. After ten years, the conviction was overturned, and he was released in 1983.

Background

Chol Soo Lee was born on August 15, 1952, in Seoul, South Korea. His Korean mother had been raped and abandoned by her family. She then married a member of the US military and moved to the United States, leaving Lee with his aunt and uncle. In 1964, when Lee was twelve, his mother returned to Korea to take Lee back to San Francisco with her.

Life in the United States was not easy for Lee, mostly because he did not speak English. In 1965, just a year after he had arrived, the San Francisco public school system declared Lee to be mentally disturbed. Juvenile authorities confirmed and confined him to juvenile detention. After a suicide attempt, Lee was transferred to McAuley Institute, a psychiatric facility at St. Mary’s Medical Center. In March 1966, he was moved to Napa State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital.

After three months of being hospitalized, he was declared sane and moved to a foster home in Hayward, California. However, within a few months, Lee had run away. He was later apprehended and began a thirteen-month sentence with the California Youth Authority, a part of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, during the summer of 1967. Given his nearly constant interaction with juvenile institutions, Lee received little education and never finished high school. He also carried with him the trauma of his experiences.

In 1971, Lee pleaded guilty to grand theft in December 1971. He was sentenced to 180 days in a county jail and three years of probation. He was released in 1972.

Life’s Work

In 1973, Lee was working as a doorman at a strip club. He asked a coworker to borrow their gun because he had never handled one and was curious. On June 2, the inexperienced Lee accidentally fired a shot into a wall outside his apartment complex. The police were called, and they retrieved a bullet from the wall. The next day, on June 3, Yip Yee Tak, a known gang member and youth advisor for the Wah Ching, was gunned down, shot from behind in broad daylight at the intersection of Pacific and Grant, close to the Ping Yuen Housing Projects in Chinatown. A five-shot .38 special was recovered as the murder weapon. The three people who witnessed the murder and the two who saw someone running away were called to the police station. All five were White males.

The witnesses viewed mugshots, including a 1969 photo of Lee. Several of the witnesses named Lee as the potential gunman. However, an autopsy found that the .38 caliber bullets from Tak’s body matched a gun previously used during a robbery of the Sun Sing Theater in Chinatown. This gun was found in the alley after the murder.

Nonetheless, around eleven o’clock on the night of June 7, 1973, Lee was arrested for Tak’s murder as he returned to his apartment. At the time, he was carrying a Colt Python 357 and 41 rounds of .38 caliber ammunition. He claimed that he did not know about the murder. On June 11, Lee was placed in a lineup, the only one whose mugshot had been identified by witnesses. Three of the five witnesses named Lee as the murderer. In addition, a criminologist claimed that the bullet found in Tak matched the gun found on Lee (a story he would later recant).

On June 19, 1973, Lee was convicted of the first-degree murder of Tak. He was sentenced to life in prison, a verdict that was upheld by the Court of Appeals, Third Appellate District on April 30, 1975. He served his sentence at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, California.

On October 8, 1977, Lee killed fellow inmate Morrison Needham, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. Although Lee claimed self-defense, he was found guilty of murder, resulting in the death penalty. He was moved to death row at San Quentin State Penitentiary.

On January 29, 1978, the first of two articles by investigative reporter K.W. Lee questioning Lee’s verdict was published in the Sacramento Union. The story spurred Asian Americans to rally in Lee’s defense. The Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee was formed in February 1978. Due to pressure from the committee and popular local Asian American support, Lee was granted a new trial. After working his way through the court system, on September 3, 1982, Lee was acquitted of Tak’s murder, and on January 14, 1982, his conviction for the murder of Needham was reversed. On August 10, 1983, Lee was released.

Post-release, Lee’s life became complicated as his supporters wanted a successful, happy ending. However, Lee fell into substance abuse and criminal activity. In 1991, he and a friend were hired to burn down the house of known mobster Peter Chong. The arson went wrong and left Lee with third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body. He was sentenced to three months of probation.

Later in his life, Lee spoke to numerous groups and organizations, promoting the importance of unity in the Asian American community. His charismatic personality inspired his supporters and engaged his audience. Lee died in San Francisco on December 2, 2014, at the age of sixty-two from a gastric disorder.

Impact

Lee’s story was mostly forgotten for more than forty years. However, the release of the documentary Free Chol Soo Lee, by directors Julie Ha and Eugene Yi, was presented at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022, sparking renewed interest of Lee’s role in the development of activism in the Asian American community. The documentary brings to light the victories and tragedies in Lee’s complicated life.

Personal Life

Lee never married. He was survived by two sisters.

Bibliography

“Chronology of the Chol Soo Lee Case.” University of California–Davis, digital.lib.ucdavis.edu/diglib/lee/browse.html. Accessed 24 June 2023.

Dowd, Kate. “The Unbelievable Life of San Francisco’s Most Complicated Convict,” SFGate, 24 Apr. 2023, www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/san-francisco-complicated-convict-17909571.php. Accessed 24 June 2023.

Egelko, Bob. “Chol Soo Lee, Famed for Murder Conviction and Release, Dies at 62.” SFGate, 17 Dec. 2014, www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Chol-Soo-Lee-famed-for-murder-conviction-and-5963898.php. Accessed 24 June 2023.

Liu, Jasmine. “Chol Soo Lee’s Complicated Heroism and Legacy.” Asian American Arts Association, 14 Apr. 2023, www.aaartsalliance.org/magazine/stories/free-chol-soo-lee. Accessed 24 June 2023.

Yee, Amy. “A Forgotten Murder Case Offers Lessons in Asian American Activism.” Bloomberg, 17 May 2023, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-17/documentary-on-pbs-free-chol-soo-lee-revisits-death-row-case. Accessed 24 June 2023.