home of the two friends that had visited her earlier, and when the police arrived, she surrendered to them. While being interrogated, García claimed that the two men had merely attempted to rape her. At the jail, she was tested for drugs and alcohol but not for signs of rape. Castillo was never charged with any crime. Trial When Cardenas learned of his wife's predicament, he recommended that she retain Charles Garry, a criminal attorney who had gained a reputation in Soledad State Penitentiary as the defender of George Jackson, Huey P. Newton, and Bobby Seale. At the same time, news of the case reached the San Francisco Bay Area, where the women's rights and Chicano movements were at their apex. García began speaking to women's groups in the area, and the Inez Garcia Defense Committee raised money for the defense and publicized the case, hoping to highlight it as a prime example of gender inequity in the criminal justice system, rather than a simple murder. Through her contact with feminist groups, Garcia became an outspoken critic of patriarchy, accusing her own judge of prejudice and sexism. During the trial, Garry argued that García had acted with diminished capacity due to the trauma of her rape and García's own history of mental instability. The defense disappointed feminists who preferred to see García as a symbol of strength and resistance to male domination. It also failed to win the sympathy of the jury. García was convicted of second-degree murder, sentenced, and spent two years in the California Institution for Women before her appeal was heard. Retrial In her retrial, García was represented by the feminist attorney Susan Jordan. Jordan dropped the "diminished capacity" defense, instead arguing simple self-defense. The argument convinced the jury, who exonerated the defendant. Aftermath The case was construed in legal circles as a ruling in favor of a woman's right to use deadly force against sexual assault. García herself continued to advocate for the rights of women and rape victims, but her activism diminished as a result of infirmity. Toward the end of her life she battled cancer and died in February 2003 at Miami. As a cause celebrity, her case inspired numerous works of art and music, including the Beverly Grant folk song "Inez", performed with the group The Human Condition; Marge Piercy's poem "For Inez Garcia"; and Jayne Cortez's poem "Rape." See also Joan Little