The Sleepy Lagoon murder case

After Jose Diaz was found murdered near Los Angeles' Sleepy Lagoon reservoir, six hundred Mexican Americans were rounded up by the police, twenty-four were indicted, and seventeen were convicted. Efforts of lawyers, Hollywood celebrities, and Mexican Americans throughout the nation resulted in all seventeen convictions being thrown out in an appellate decision that cited lack of evidence, coerced testimony, deprivation of the right to counsel, and judicial misconduct. Many of the social, political, and culture issues that dominated America in 1942 are still with us today.