The State - News from June 28, 1987

Ex-fugitive Stephen Bingham has settled down with a wife, a newborn baby and a steady job, but he has not abandoned the political activism that sent him underground for 13 years. A year after a Marin County jury acquitted him of murder and conspiracy charges stemming from a 1971 shoot-out at San Quentin Prison, the 43-year-old lawyer says he finally feels free. “Every day when I wake up, I feel relief that it’s all behind me,” Bingham said. He fled to Europe 16 years ago after being accused of smuggling a gun into San Quentin Prison to Black Panthers member George Jackson, who used an automatic pistol in an aborted escape attempt. Jackson was killed along with three guards and two other convicts. Bingham returned in 1984 and surrendered in San Francisco, claiming the government had framed him because of his activism in prison reform during the late 1960s and early ‘70s. “People ask me why I don’t sue the state for having my life destroyed,” Bingham said. “But I don’t want to spend the next 10 years with lawyers in courtrooms.” He has taken a job handling pension litigation for an Oakland law firm. Bingham is negotiating with a Hollywood company interested in making a movie about him.