King-Ramsay-Conner case

Earl King, Ernest Ramsay, and Frank Conner were three merchant seamen convicted of murdering a ship's officer, George Alberts, aboard a freighter anchored in Alameda, California, on March 22, 1936.

Their trial, appeals, and terms in San Quentin Prison made up a widely reported case that caught the attention of trade unionists, progressives, and radicals. The prosecution was led by Alameda County District Attorney Earl Warren, who would go on to become the Attorney General and Governor of California, and later the Chief Justice of the United States. The sentences of the three men were later commuted to time served by California Governor Culbert Olson, and Warren himself later granted one of the convicted men a full pardon when he was ending his time as governor to join the U.S. Supreme Court as its Chief Justice.