Tony Serra

Infobox Person
name = Tony Serra


caption = Tony Serra. Courtroom sketch by artist Paulette Frankl
birth_date =
birth_place =
death_date =
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education = Stanford
alma_mater = California
occupation = Lawyer
nationality = flag|United States

J. Tony Serra is an American civil rights attorney, activist and tax resister from San Francisco.

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 Nessler, 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. [http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Nov-24-Wed-2004/news/25339516.html]

Serra won the [http://www.tlpj.org/pr/tloy_finalists_061603.htm 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. [ [http://www.tlpj.org/pr/tloy_winners_7-28-03.htm Fourteen Lawyers in Two Exceptional Cases Win 2003 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award] , tlpj.org]

He has frequently been in trouble with the law for failure to pay taxes, and is known for living a frugal lifestyle and driving a run-down car. 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 [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/29/BAserra29.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea Attorney Tony Serra sentenced to prison] , San Francisco Chronicle, July 29, 2005] . 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 [http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=99943-011&x=0&y=0] . 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. [ [http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1174467833740 Defense Lawyer Serra Sues Over His Prison Pay] , "The Recorder", March 22, 2007]

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

External links

* [http://www.november.org/stayinfo/breaking07/TonySerra.html “Letter from Prison”] "California Lawyer"
* [http://www.sanfran.com/archives/view_story/1490/ The Believer Behind Bars] "San Francisco" November 2006
* [http://7x2.com/serra080705.htm Always a Man of His Convictions] "Los Angeles Times" 7 August 2005
* [http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1122627920060 Tax Evasion Sends Renowned Attorney to Prison — Again] "The Recorder" 1 August 2005
* [http://pier5law.com/Tony-Serra.htm J. Tony Serra — Pier 5 Law Offices]
* [http://www.lvcitylife.com/articles/2004/06/16/cover_story/cover.txt Dream Team Shattered] "Las Vegas CityLife" 6 June 2004, by Cathy Scott [http://www.cathyscott.com/]
*"LUST FOR JUSTICE", Biography of J. Tony Serra by courtroom artist Paulette Frankl] [http://www.pauletteart.com/Courtroom.htm]
* [http://www.nwtrcc.org/mtap07/mtap0807.html#jail J. Tony Serra: The War Tax Resisting Attorney] "More Than a Paycheck" August 2007