Area group that provided legal help to inmates. Bingham worked on Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968. Defendant in San Quentin case Bingham was accused of concealing a pistol in a tape recorder and smuggling it to Jackson in San Quentin's Adjustment Center. On August 21, 1971, Jackson used a pistol, an Astra 9-mm semi-automatic, to take over his tier in the Adjustment Center. In the failed escape attempt, six people were killed, including Jackson, two fellow inmates and three prison guards. Following the incident, Bingham fled the country and lived in Europe for 13 years. He was reported to have traveled to France at least twice. In 1974, Bingham was interviewed for The New York Times in an unknown Canadian city by a law school classmate. Afterwards, the FBI worked with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in an attempt to locate him. In 1984, he returned to the United States and surrendered in San Francisco. He claimed that he was framed due to his activism in prison reform. He was reported to have "lived quietly in San Jose, California for six months" prior to surrendering. On July 5, 1984, Bingham's attorney, Paul A. Harris, announced that Bingham would surrender "within a week". He surrendered on July 9 with the help of former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark. According to Harris, government authorities set up Bingham as a scapegoat to deter other attorneys assisting the "black radical movement". Bingham's father suggested that a woman who went with Bingham to San Quentin that day, but was never arrested or indicted, may have been involved in a plot to smuggle a weapon into the prison. Georgia State Senator Julian Bond and writer Jessica Mitford were among those noted to have contributed financial or moral support to Bingham. Prior to the trial, he was defended by Leonard Weinglass. Opening arguments in the trial were scheduled to begin on April 7, 1986. As Time Magazine wrote at the time, "During a ten-week trial, Marin County prosecutors argued that Bingham's flight was proof of his guilt. Defense attorneys contended that prison guards had slipped Jackson the gun, hoping that the incendiary black militant would be killed. Bingham, they said, fled to save his life. 'To understand this case,' declared Bingham's lawyer M. Gerald Schwartzbach, 'you have to understand 1971 . . . We're talking about a time when students were murdered at Kent