Biography
John Cluchette was a Black prisoner at Soledad Prison in California and one of the three Soledad Brothers — alongside George Jackson and Fleeta Drumgo — charged in February 1970 with the murder of Soledad guard John Mills. The charge was based on no physical evidence; the case was widely understood as retaliation against politically active Black prisoners. The Soledad Brothers Defense Committee, with Angela Davis as one of its central organizers, made the case an international cause. After George Jackson was killed by guards at San Quentin on August 21, 1971, three days before the trial was set to begin, Cluchette and Drumgo were tried together. On March 27, 1972, the jury acquitted both men of all charges. Cluchette completed an unrelated earlier sentence and was released in the late 1970s.
