| Tony Serra | |
|---|---|
 Tony Serra. Courtroom sketch by artist Paulette Frankl |
|
| Nationality | United States |
| Education | Stanford |
| Alma mater | California |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
J. Tony Serra is an American civil rights attorney, activist and tax resister from San Francisco.
Contents |
Education
A graduate of Stanford University and UC-Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, Serra was educated during the rise of the counterculture of the 1960s.
Biography
He was the subject of the 1989 movie True Believer 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.[1]
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. [1]
Serra has taken a vow of poverty, and is known for living a frugal lifestyle and driving a run-down car.[citation needed] All income from his cases are distributed to other lawyers except for a very small portion that he uses to pay rent and gas.[citation needed] All of his clothes (including suits, briefcases, shoes etc.) are bought secondhand.[citation needed]
Serra has several times been in trouble with the law for failure to pay taxes. He refused to pay taxes in protest of the War in Iraq, based on his conviction that the Bush regime 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.[citation needed] 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.[2] 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 [2]. Along with three other attorneys, Serra filed a class-action lawsuit seeking minimum wages for himself and other inmates, citing the slave wages as unconstitutional. [3]
Family
Tony Serra's younger brother is the famed American sculptor Richard Serra. Richard, a successful artist, paid for the college educations of Tony's five children.
References
- ^ Fourteen Lawyers in Two Exceptional Cases Win 2003 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award, tlpj.org
- ^ Attorney Tony Serra sentenced to prison, San Francisco Chronicle, July 29, 2005
- ^ Defense Lawyer Serra Sues Over His Prison Pay, The Recorder, March 22, 2007
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 Scott[3]
- LUST FOR JUSTICE, Biography of J. Tony Serra by courtroom artist Paulette Frankl[4]
- J. Tony Serra: The War Tax Resisting Attorney More Than a Paycheck August 2007
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