Tony Serra
Encyclopedia
J. Tony Serra is an American civil rights
lawyer
, activist and tax resister
from San Francisco.
and a law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, UC-Berkeley.
about a Chinatown (San Francisco) murder case in which he won an acquittal for Chol Soo Lee
, the defendant. He also successfully defended Black Panther
leader Huey Newton in a murder trial and represented individuals from groups as diverse and politically charged as the White Panthers, Hells Angels
, Earth First!
, and New World Liberation Front (NWLF). Some of these individuals include Brownie Mary
, Dennis Peron
, Hooty Croy, Ellie Nesler
, and Symbionese Liberation Army
members Sara Jane Olson, Russell Little and Michael Bortin. Serra, in 2004, won an acquittal during a retrial on murder charges for co-defendant Rick Tabish in the death of casino mogul Ted Binion
.http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Nov-24-Wed-2004/news/25339516.html
Serra won the Trial Lawyer of the Year award in 2003 (by the organization Trial Lawyers for Public Justice), for his successful litigation of Judi Bari
against the FBI.
Serra has taken a vow of poverty and is known for living a frugal lifestyle and driving a run-down car. All income from his cases is distributed to other lawyers except for a very small portion that he uses to pay rent and gas. All of his clothes (including suits, briefcases, shoes etc.) are bought secondhand.
Serra has several times been in trouble with the law for failure to pay income taxes. He refused to pay taxes in protest of the War in Iraq, based on his conviction that the Bush administration was leading the country in the wrong direction and that he would therefore not contribute any money to fund what he saw as Bush's corrupt politics. On July 29, 2005, he was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison, to be served at Lompoc, and ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution for a misdemeanor conviction of willful failure to pay taxes. Serra was released from the federal camp in Lompoc, California, in mid February 2007, reporting immediately to a San Francisco halfway house. He was released from federal custody, and the halfway house, on March 13, 2007, after serving out his sentence http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=99943-011&x=0&y=0. Along with three other attorneys, Serra filed a class-action lawsuit seeking minimum wages for himself and other inmates, citing slave wages as unconstitutional.
, a prominent sculptor, and Rudy Serra, also a noted artist. Richard paid for the college educations of Tony's five children.
White Panthers;
Russel Little, SLA;
NWLF;
Hell's Angels;
Chol Soo Lee
;
Hooty Croy;
Brownie Mary;
Ellie Nesler;
Bear Lincoln;
Sara Jane Olson a.k.a. Kathleen Soliah, SLA;
Judi Barry and Darryl Cherney v. FBI;
Michael Bortin, SLA;
Rick Tabish, Las Vegas Binion Case;
Rod Coranado, ELF;
BALCO, Barry Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson
.
Drug Policy Foundation Achievement in the Field of Law, 1992;
Boalt Hall "Alumnus of the Year, 1993;
Charles Garry Award, 1994;
ACLU Benjamin Dreyfus Civil Liberties Award, 1997;
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, 2000,
"Ten Best Criminal Defense Attorneys of the Century;"
McFetridge-American Inn of court,
Co-Awardee "2003 Trial Lawyer of the Year";
Trial Lawyers for Public Justice,
"Certificate of Honor, December 1, 2005;"
Criminal Trial Lawyers Association of Northern California,
"2005 Gideon Equal Justice Award;"
2008 NORML Lester Grinspoon Award,
"For Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Marijuana Law Reform"
with a foreword by criminal defense attorney Gerry Spence
, was released.
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, activist and tax resister
Tax resistance
Tax resistance is the refusal to pay tax because of opposition to the government that is imposing the tax or to government policy.Tax resistance is a form of civil disobedience and direct action...
from San Francisco.
Education
Serra received a bachelor's of art in philosophy from Stanford UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and a law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, UC-Berkeley.
Biography
He was the subject of the 1989 movie True BelieverTrue Believer (1989 film)
True Believer is a 1989 courtroom drama directed by Joseph Ruben and released by Columbia Pictures.-Synopsis:The film stars James Woods as burnt-out attorney Eddie Dodd, who has left behind civil rights work to defend drug dealers. Robert Downey Jr...
about a Chinatown (San Francisco) murder case in which he won an acquittal for Chol Soo Lee
Chol Soo Lee
Chol Soo Lee is a Korean American immigrant who was wrongfully convicted for the 1973 killing of Yip Yee Tak, a San Francisco Chinatown gang leader and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, he was sentenced to death for the self-defense killing of another prisoner. Chol Soo spent ten years...
, the defendant. He also successfully defended Black Panther
Black panther
A black panther is typically a melanistic color variant of any of several species of larger cat. Wild black panthers in Latin America are black jaguars , in Asia and Africa they are black leopards , and in North America they may be black jaguars or possibly black cougars A black panther is...
leader Huey Newton in a murder trial and represented individuals from groups as diverse and politically charged as the White Panthers, Hells Angels
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
, Earth First!
Earth First!
Earth First! is a radical environmental advocacy group that emerged in the Southwestern United States in 1979. It was co-founded on April 4th, 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, and less directly, Bart Koehler and Ron Kezar....
, and New World Liberation Front (NWLF). Some of these individuals include Brownie Mary
Brownie Mary
Mary Jane Rathbun , popularly known as Brownie Mary, was an American medical cannabis activist. Rathbun was a hospital volunteer at San Francisco General Hospital who became known for illegally baking and distributing chocolate cannabis brownies to AIDS patients...
, Dennis Peron
Dennis Peron
Dennis Peron is an openly gay American medical marijuana and LGBT activist and businessman who was the figurehead for the legality of cannabis throughout the 1990s influencing many in California and thus changing the political debate of marijuana in the United States...
, Hooty Croy, Ellie Nesler
Ellie Nesler
Elena Starr "Ellie" Nesler shot and killed her son's accused molester in a Jamestown, California, courtroom during the preliminary hearing on the charges against him. She served 3 years of a 10-year sentence and was released after an appeal based on jury misconduct...
, and Symbionese Liberation Army
Symbionese Liberation Army
The Symbionese Liberation Army was an American self-styled left-wing urban militant group active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a revolutionary vanguard army...
members Sara Jane Olson, Russell Little and Michael Bortin. Serra, in 2004, won an acquittal during a retrial on murder charges for co-defendant Rick Tabish in the death of casino mogul Ted Binion
Ted Binion
Lonnie Theodore "Ted" Binion was a wealthy U.S. gambling executive and one of the sons of famed Las Vegas casino magnate Lester Ben "Benny" Binion, owner of Binion's Horseshoe...
.http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Nov-24-Wed-2004/news/25339516.html
Serra won the Trial Lawyer of the Year award in 2003 (by the organization Trial Lawyers for Public Justice), for his successful litigation of Judi Bari
Judi Bari
Judi Bari was an American environmentalist and labor leader, a feminist, and the principal organizer of Earth First! campaigns against logging in the ancient redwood forests of Northern California in the 1980s and '90...
against the FBI.
Serra has taken a vow of poverty and is known for living a frugal lifestyle and driving a run-down car. All income from his cases is distributed to other lawyers except for a very small portion that he uses to pay rent and gas. All of his clothes (including suits, briefcases, shoes etc.) are bought secondhand.
Serra has several times been in trouble with the law for failure to pay income taxes. He refused to pay taxes in protest of the War in Iraq, based on his conviction that the Bush administration was leading the country in the wrong direction and that he would therefore not contribute any money to fund what he saw as Bush's corrupt politics. On July 29, 2005, he was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison, to be served at Lompoc, and ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution for a misdemeanor conviction of willful failure to pay taxes. Serra was released from the federal camp in Lompoc, California, in mid February 2007, reporting immediately to a San Francisco halfway house. He was released from federal custody, and the halfway house, on March 13, 2007, after serving out his sentence http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=99943-011&x=0&y=0. Along with three other attorneys, Serra filed a class-action lawsuit seeking minimum wages for himself and other inmates, citing slave wages as unconstitutional.
Family
Tony has two younger brothers, Richard SerraRichard Serra
Richard Serra is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist known for working with large-scale assemblies of sheet metal. Serra was involved in the Process Art Movement.-Early life and education:...
, a prominent sculptor, and Rudy Serra, also a noted artist. Richard paid for the college educations of Tony's five children.
High profile cases
Huey Newton, Black Panthers;White Panthers;
Russel Little, SLA;
NWLF;
Hell's Angels;
Chol Soo Lee
Chol Soo Lee
Chol Soo Lee is a Korean American immigrant who was wrongfully convicted for the 1973 killing of Yip Yee Tak, a San Francisco Chinatown gang leader and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, he was sentenced to death for the self-defense killing of another prisoner. Chol Soo spent ten years...
;
Hooty Croy;
Brownie Mary;
Ellie Nesler;
Bear Lincoln;
Sara Jane Olson a.k.a. Kathleen Soliah, SLA;
Judi Barry and Darryl Cherney v. FBI;
Michael Bortin, SLA;
Rick Tabish, Las Vegas Binion Case;
Rod Coranado, ELF;
BALCO, Barry Bonds' trainer Greg Anderson
Greg Anderson
Greg Anderson may refer to:*Cadillac Anderson , Gregory Wayne "Cadillac" Anderson, basketball player*Greg Anderson , Canadian actor*Greg Anderson , NHRA pro stock drag racer...
.
Awards
Runner up, "Best Lawyer in America," American Lawyer magazine, 1982;Drug Policy Foundation Achievement in the Field of Law, 1992;
Boalt Hall "Alumnus of the Year, 1993;
Charles Garry Award, 1994;
ACLU Benjamin Dreyfus Civil Liberties Award, 1997;
California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, 2000,
"Ten Best Criminal Defense Attorneys of the Century;"
McFetridge-American Inn of court,
Co-Awardee "2003 Trial Lawyer of the Year";
Trial Lawyers for Public Justice,
"Certificate of Honor, December 1, 2005;"
Criminal Trial Lawyers Association of Northern California,
"2005 Gideon Equal Justice Award;"
2008 NORML Lester Grinspoon Award,
"For Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Marijuana Law Reform"
Book
In October 2010, a biography of Serra, LUST FOR JUSTICE: The Radical Life & Law of J. Tony Serra, written by courtroom artist Paulette FranklPaulette Frankl
Paulette Frankl is an American courtroom artist and author.-Biography:Frankl was born in California, and attended Stanford University, where she majored in art and languages....
with a foreword by criminal defense attorney Gerry Spence
Gerry Spence
Gerry Spence is a trial lawyer in the United States. In 2008, he announced he would retire, at age 79, at the end of the Geoffrey Fieger trial in Detroit, MI. Spence states that he "has never lost a criminal case either as a prosecutor or a defense attorney...
, was released.
External links
- “Letter from Prison” California Lawyer
- The Believer Behind Bars San Francisco November 2006
- Always a Man of His Convictions Los Angeles Times 7 August 2005
- Tax Evasion Sends Renowned Attorney to Prison — Again The Recorder 1 August 2005
- J. Tony Serra — Pier 5 Law Offices
- Dream Team Shattered Las Vegas CityLife 6 June 2004, by Cathy ScottCathy ScottCathy Scott is an American true crime writer and investigative journalist, born and raised in San Diego, United States growing up in nearby La Mesa, California...
http://www.cathyscott.com/ - LUST FOR JUSTICE, Biography of J. Tony Serra by courtroom artist Paulette Frankl http://www.pauletteart.com/Courtroom.htm
- J. Tony Serra: The War Tax Resisting Attorney More Than a Paycheck August 2007
- LUST FOR JUSTICE official book site
- Tony Serra on War Tax Resistance and Doing Time (video of him speaking at a National War Tax Resistance Coordinating CommitteeNational War Tax Resistance Coordinating CommitteeThe National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee is an American activist coalition that promotes tax resistance as a way to protest against and/or disassociate from war and militarism....
conference) - Zero Tolerance a video by Paper Tiger TV West featuring Tony Serra critiquing the Bush era "War on Drugs" and early "Reality TV"