Listen to Part 1 of this story about the killing of Richard Oakes.

The 1972 killing of Richard Oakes, the face of the Red Power movement, still sticks with the people who worked on the case. The detective who was at the scene of the killing remembers feeling suspicious of Michael Morgan, the man who shot Oakes. The prosecutor remembers the holes in Morgan’s story that he shot Oakes in self-defense. 

And yet, Morgan was acquitted of manslaughter charges. Today, they admit that the trial was botched.

In Part 2 of our two-part episode with San Francisco Chronicle reporters Julie Johnson and Jason Fagone, we talk about missteps in the investigation into Oakes’ death, and how the justice system in Sonoma County was stacked against him. 

Read the full story on Richard Oakes’ death in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Episode transcript

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