Stephen King fled the country under a pen name.
Chol Soo Lee was a Korean American immigrant who was wrongfully convicted for the 1973 murder of Yip Yee Tak , a San Francisco Chinatown gang leader , and sentenced to life in prison .. Korean American. Korean American. San Francisco Chinatown. Chinatown, San Francisco. gang. gang. While in prison , he was sentenced to death for the killing of another prisoner , Morrison Needham , though Chol Soo claimed self-defense .. sentenced to death. Capital punishment. self-defense. self-defense. Chol Soo served ten years of his sentence for the killing of Yip Yee Tak of which he was later acquitted , eight of those on death row .. death row. death row. Investigative reporting by K. W. Lee sparked the formation of the Free Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee , which spurred a national pan-Asian movement .. K. W. Lee. K. W. Lee. Chol Soo finally won his freedom in 1983 through the help of the Free Chol Soo Lee Defense Committee .