Ruchell Magee, Only Survivor of 1970 Marin Courthouse Shootout, Freed From US Prison

A Black revolutionary identified by activists as the longest-held political prisoner in the United States is set to be free from prison after more than 67 years behind bars, a solidarity group announced.

The Coalition to Free Ruchell Magee revealed on Friday that the 84-year-old activist would soon be released.

“Ruchell ‘Cinque’ Magee is coming home! After 67 years of wrongful imprisonment, the Coalition to Free Ruchell Magee is proud and overjoyed to announce that Ruchell Magee has won his release from California Medical Facility,” the group tweeted.

🎉 #RuchellMagee https://t.co/dODshJW5HX pic.twitter.com/SEUgbYGcqs

— nightshade (@eight4878) July 21, 2023

Magee has been in US prisons since he was 16 years old, having first been imprisoned in Louisiana under a rape charge for having a relationship with an older white woman. After being released in 1962, he was arrested again just six months later in 1963 on charges related to marijuana possession, kidnapping, and robbery, for which he was sentenced to seven years-to-life.

The solidarity group’s website describes the Los Angeles County Superior Court as having “railroaded” Magee with “trumped-up charges.”

However, on August 7, 1970, Magee appeared in court as a witness to an alleged murder of a prison guard, of which Black Panther Party (BPP) member James McClain was accused. That same day, another BPP member, 17-year-old Jonathan Jackson, entered the courtroom with the intention of kidnapping Judge Harold Haley and demanding that Jackson’s brother, BPP Field Marshal George Jackson, and two other prisoners who together with Jackson formed the Soledad Brothers, be freed from San Quentin Prison.

Neither McClain or Magee knew of the plan ahead of time, but after being armed by Jackson, they joined the plot and freed the other prisoners in the courthouse.

The four men, plus five hostages, then attempted to flee to the airport in a rented van, but a bloody shootout with police quickly ensued. The three Panthers were all killed, as was the judge, while Magee and three of the hostages were wounded.

Magee was held responsible for the entire affair, and during the trial for the Haley's death, police ordered Magee chained and gagged after he delivered a brutal indictment of the California prison system, which he characterized as “slavery.” Magee was also threatened with execution if he refused to incriminate his co-defendant, BPP member and scholar Angela Davis, who was accused of renting the van used in the getaway and acquiring several of the firearms they used.

Magee refused and Davis was acquitted, but he was to stay in prison for the next 53 years.

The Coalition to Free Ruchell Magee formed in 2019 as Magee’s chance at parole approached in 2024, although they have demanded he be freed before then, “especially because of his factual innocence, his age of 84 years old, and the risk of COVID-19 in California’s wretched prisons.”

A number of other Black radical activists who were politically active in the mid-late 20th century have seen their solidarity campaigns succeed in recent years, many of which have been made on the grounds that they are elderly, have been excellent inmates, are not a threat to society, and should be granted compassionate release to spend their final days with their families.

Some of those freed in recent years include Mutulu Shakur, Jalil Muntaqim, Sundiata Acoli, Janine Phillips Africa and Janet Holloway Africa. However, Mumia Abu-Jamal, a journalist accused of killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981, has struggled to obtain a new trial based on evidence that the trial in which he was convicted was heavily biased against him.