Biography
Lead defendant in the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial, accused by Los Angeles County prosecutors of being the ringleader in the August 2, 1942 killing of José Díaz at a reservoir near Commerce, California. Convicted of first-degree murder in January 1943 by an all-white jury after a mass trial of twenty-two Mexican-American youths. The convictions were unanimously reversed by the California District Court of Appeal in October 1944 in People v. Zammora.
Case
San Quentin State Prison