Soledad Brothers

The Soledad Brothers were three inmates charged with the murder of a prison guard, John Vincent Mills, at California's Soledad State Prison on January 16, 1970.^[1] George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Clutchette were alleged to have murdered Mills in retaliation for the shooting deaths by another prison guard, Opie G. Miller, of three black inmates during a fight in the exercise yard on January 13. The killing of Mills occurred 30 minutes after Soledad prisoners learned that Officer Miller had been cleared of wrongdoing by a grand jury.

The Soledad Brothers case became a leftist cause célèbre. Jackson died in prison in 1971 and never stood trial for Mills' murder. Drumgo and Clutchette were acquitted by a jury in March 1972.