Inez García (1941–2003) was an American woman who gained notoriety within the feminist movement after being accused of the murder of a man who had previously raped her in 1974.
Cardenas was imprisoned in Soledad, California, after being convicted of involvement in a political bombing in Los Angeles claimed by Poder Cubano.
Accounts vary as to precisely what occurred next, but, according to Garcia's testimony during her 1975 retrial, Jimenez appeared to brandish his knife, and García shot him.
When Cardenas learned of his wife's predicament, he recommended that she retain Charles Garry, a criminal attorney who had gained a reputation in Soledad State Penitentiary as the defender of George Jackson, Huey P. Newton, and Bobby Seale.
At the same time, news of the case reached the San Francisco Bay Area, where the women's rights and Chicano movements were at their apex.
[citation needed] During the trial, Garry argued that García had acted with diminished capacity due to the trauma of her rape and a history of mental instability.
Not only did this defense fail to win the sympathy of the jury, it also disappointed feminists who preferred to project the image of García as a symbol of strength and resistance to male dominance.
García was convicted of second-degree murder, sentenced, and spent two years in the California Institution for Women before her appeal was heard.