Biography
Mexican-American youth nicknamed Smiling who was among the twelve defendants convicted in the January 1943 Sleepy Lagoon murder trial. Charged in the August 1942 death of José Díaz, he was convicted by an all-white Los Angeles jury in a proceeding marred by the prosecution's reliance on racial pseudoscience. Conviction reversed October 1944 by the California District Court of Appeal.
Case
San Quentin State Prison