Charge Against Activist Lawyer Dismissed
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SAN FRANCISCO — The last outstanding criminal charge against Chicano activist lawyer Francisco (Kiko) Martinez was overturned Thursday by a federal appeals court, ending a 15-year legal battle that began in Colorado.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision cleared the way for Martinez to seek reinstatement to practice law in Colorado.
Martinez, 41, maintained in his 1985 Tucson, Ariz., perjury trial that federal officials were retaliating against him because they failed to convict him on 1973 letter-bomb charges in three successive Alamosa, Colo., trials between 1980 and 1984.
Martinez, contacted in Alamosa, said he was pleased with the ruling but called it a “Pyrrhic victory” after 15 years of legal fighting.
The appeals court split 2 to 1 in reversing Martinez’s conviction on a charge of giving a false name in a court financial status hearing stemming from his Arizona arrest as a presumed illegal alien when he tried to cross the border from Mexico into the United States.
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