Jimi "Dexter" Simmons was a Muckleshoot

Muckleshoot

The Muckleshoot are a Lushootseed Native American tribe, part of the Coast Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest whose traditional territory and reservations is located in the area of Auburn, Washington, between Seattle and Tacoma...

/Rogue River Indian man who was accused of killing a prison guard in Walla Walla Penitentiary

Washington State Penitentiary

Washington State Penitentiary is a Washington State Department of Corrections men's prison located in Walla Walla, Washington...

 in 1979. Jimi and his brother George Simmons were charged with the death penalty

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

. Jimi's defense attorneys were Leonard Weinglass

Leonard Weinglass

Leonard Irving Weinglass was a U.S. criminal defense lawyer and constitutional law advocate. Weinglass graduated from Yale Law School in 1958, then served as a Captain, Judge Advocate, United States Air Force from 1959 to 1961. He was admitted to the bar in the states of New Jersey, New York,...

 and John Wolfe.

George Simmons was found guilty of second degree murder in 1980. He killed himself in his prison cell in 1981. Jimi Simmons was tried in 1981 after spending two and a half years in solitary confinement

Solitary confinement

Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...

. Originally the judge ordered that he would be shackled during his trial. This raised the spectre of Bobby Seale

Bobby Seale

Robert George "Bobby" Seale , is an activist. He is known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with Huey Newton.-Early life:...

's treatment during the Chicago 7

Chicago Seven

The Chicago Seven were seven defendants—Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner—charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968...

(8) trial, where Leonard Weinglass had been one of the defense attorneys. The shackling issue was appealed by the defense and went all the way to the Washington State Supreme Court (Simmons vs The People of the State of Washington).

Jimi Simmons was acquitted in December, 1981. He was released from prison in 1983. A documentary film has been made of his life and trial titled Making the River. Making the River was directed by Sarah Del Seronde and produced by Paul Stoll.

Simmons died April 13, 2011 by a stroke.

Sources

• Los Altos Town Crier, April 9, 2008

Vol. 62 No. 15, page 1,6,7,10; "A Path to Redemption"

• The State of Washington v James Simmons

Washington Supreme Court, 1981

• http://www.makingtheriver.com
• http://www.aboriginallens.com