Vocational Institution in Tracy, California. Publicity and Defense Committee Alerted by young Asian American supporters of Chol Soo Lee from San Francisco about his innocence, investigative reporter K. W. Lee from The Sacramento Union, embarked on a six-month investigation in June 1977, into what became known as the "Alice in Chinatown Murder Case". On October 8, 1977, Lee killed Morrison Needham in a prison yard altercation. Lee, who claimed self-defense, was charged with murder with special circumstances because of his earlier murder conviction, which calls for the death penalty. The first of two articles by K. W. Lee appeared in The Sacramento Union on January 29, 1978. It questioned the verdict in the murder of Tak. The continuing investigative series prompted a local drive to form the first Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee, organized as a pan-Asian effort by then law school graduate Jay Yoo and Davis, California school teacher Grace Kim in Sacramento, third generation Japanese American college student Ranko Yamada, and third-generation Korean Americans Gail Whang and Brenda Paik Sunoo in the San Francisco Bay Area. This led to a national coalition of Asian American activists, and Korean community groups and churches in February 1978. Retrial and exoneration Lee filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in July 1978, alleging that key evidence had been suppressed at his first trial. Lee was not aware of the remedy of habeas corpus due to his limited education and experience until he was provided an attorney from the San Joaquin County public defender's office on October 18, 1977, following his arraignment for the stabbing of Needham. One of the key pieces of evidence that was not disclosed by the prosecution during discovery was a police report filed by Inspector Falzon dated June 6, 1973; in that report, which directly rebutted Falzon's unsourced assertion that Tak's death was a contract killing and therefore first-degree murder, three alternative theories were advanced for Tak's killing, including that Tak was a suspect in three rapes. In addition, the police report of June 6 included a statement from a confidential informant that asserted that just before Tak was killed, he was seen having coffee with another person before apparently reaching some sort of agreement and then arguing. The habeas hearing was held in 1978, and granted in February 1979. Meanwhile, Lee was tried and convicted for first-degree murder relating to the stabbing death of