The State - News from March 15, 1988

Former Black Panther Johnny Spain, out of prison for the first time in 21 years, appealed efforts by the state to reinstate his murder convictions in a bloody 1971 San Quentin Prison escape attempt. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting in a special session at Stanford University Law School, heard the state’s contention that Spain’s conviction, overturned in 1986, should be reinstated. Spain was a member of the so-called “San Quentin Six” tried for murder in the violent prison uprising that left six dead 17 years ago, including prison revolutionary George Jackson. Spain, in prison on an unrelated murder charge at the time of the San Quentin uprising, served his time on the original offense but remained behind bars because of litigation in the prison riot. He was finally freed on bail last Thursday, the first time he has been out of prison since 1966, following his arrest in a Los Angeles robbery-murder at the age of 17.