Biography
Alberto Aranda was a Chicano jailhouse lawyer and a leader of Prisoners United for Revolutionary Education inside the Texas prison system. He assisted other prisoners with legal work and criticized prison conditions. On February 19, 1987, a Walker County grand jury charged him with aggravated assault after guard Peter Miles alleged that Aranda splashed liquid into his eyes at the Ellis I Unit. Aranda and his supporters argued that prison disciplinary records identified the liquid as water and that the prosecution retaliated against his legal and political organizing. A jury convicted him and the court added a 40-year sentence to the 18-year term he was already serving.
Case
SCI Dallas
