Clip: Season 24 Episode 12 | 1m 30s | Video has closed captioning.
Get an inside look at Free Chol Soo Lee from Independent Lens. After 10 years of fighting for his life inside California state prisons, Lee found himself in a new fight to rise to the expectations of the people who believed in him.
Aired: 04/20/23
♪ This is a story ♪ ♪ Of a man named Chol Soo Lee ♪ - [Voiceover] A detective told me I was charged with first degree murder.
It sent chills throughout my mind.
I would now face the death penalty.
(metal clanging) ♪ Shots rang out in the alley ♪ ♪ A man with light gold hair ♪ - This film is about a Korean immigrant named Chol Soo Lee who was wrongly convicted of murder in San Francisco Chinatown in the 1970s.
His case helped trigger a landmark Asian American social justice movement to free Chol Soo Lee.
- The demonstrations, hundreds of people were always there.
Court hearings, hundreds of people were there.
The Chol Soo Lee movement had a life of its own.
- It wasn't like today where you can just post on social media.
We didn't have social media then so it was physically calling a meeting together, talking about the case to try to bring justice and free Chol Soo Lee.
- I want everybody to see it.
I want everybody to know this name, Chol Soo Lee.
- We're so honored to have our film on PBS's Independent Lens.
It is a part of American history, not just Asian American history, and we wanna arm people with this sense of history.
(gentle music)
