[1][2] He pled guilty to aggravated kidnapping in the August 7, 1970 Marin County Civic Center courthouse attacks in San Rafael, California.
Judge Harold Haley was killed in that attack, as were all of those involved in taking him and other hostages from the courthouse, with the exception of Magee—the only black survivor of the event.
Born in rural Louisiana, when he was 16, Magee was convicted in 1955 of attempted rape of a 22-year-old woman after a one-day trial, and sentenced to hard labor.
[3] Becoming a "jailhouse lawyer" in his quest to prove the kidnapping and robbery conviction was unjust, he was recognized as an activist and advocate for Black prisoners, as well as a vexatious litigant known for disruptive and abusive courtroom behavior.
[12] Magee was imprisoned in the Louisiana State Penitentiary—commonly known as "Angola" and described by The Los Angeles Times in 1972 as "a hellhole long reputed to be among the filthiest and most inhumane of Southern prisons".
[5] Released on the condition that he leave Louisiana,[13][12] he moved shortly to Los Angeles to live with his aunt and uncle,[5] Freddie and Beatrice Thomas.
[1][16] Court records including allegations that Magee had a loaded gun; along with his cousin Leroy Stewart, he was charged with kidnapping and robbery.
"[17] During trial, Magee frequently interrupted court proceedings to proclaim his innocence, leading the presiding judge to have him gagged with towels.
[13] Though practically illiterate upon being incarcerated, Magee improved his literacy skills and became a "jailhouse lawyer", seeking to overturn his conviction and helping several other prisoners.
Frustrated by his lack of success, he became convinced that his imprisonment was tantamount to slavery and that the criminal justice system in the United States was inherently racist.
[20] A friend described Magee to the Los Angeles Times as mistrustful of anyone "who hasn't been through what he's been through", including attorneys, judges and journalists, and trusting only other black convicts.
"[29] Magee's account is that Haley was killed by police bullets, and was dead before the shotgun went off,[5] and that he was not there to take part in a kidnapping for ransom; he was there to expose prison treatment of blacks, and only joined McClain after a 15-minute speech to the jurors to that effect.
[5] Magee was characterized by Michael Camp in a 2019 Journal of African American History as having a "propensity for insulting judges and hamstringing proceedings with theatrics in court".
[46] Berger writes that "Magee and his small but vocal collection of supporters" viewed him as a slave resisting bondage via open rebellion.
[47] In a 2015 book review of Berger's Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era, Lee Bernstein wrote that imprisoned activists including Magee developed support networks that facilitated the spread of "new analyses of the relationship between incarceration, racism, and state power".
[48] Bernstein argued that "placing a dog's muzzle over his mouth ... confirmed for Magee and others that their actions amounted to a slave revolt" and that these activists promoted a view that prisons served to "reinforce race and racism, much like slavery".
[48] Magee adopted the name "Cinque" from the enslaved African Joseph Cinqué who led the famous 1839 slave revolt aboard La Amistad.