Biography
Frank Nubin was a 46-year-old Oakland, California steelworker — married, studying structural engineering — who had spent some fifteen years of his life in California prisons and became, to The Black Panther, an emblem of the abuses of the state's indeterminate-sentence and Adult Authority parole system. Arrested at Christmas 1968 with less than a month left on parole (on his former common-law wife's claim that he had attacked her), he was returned to San Quentin on a parole violation in February 1969. At a November 12, 1971 hearing, the court ordered him to report on November 20. The newspaper's complete account states that on November 20 authorities instead told him he could remain outside prison for ten more months under Adult Authority control; it does not document a new physical return to prison. Documented in The Black Panther (November 29, 1971).
Nubin described several distinct earlier prison terms. After pleading guilty to two unspecified counts as a young man, he actually served five years and ten months. An October 1960 assault arrest led to a January 4, 1961 conviction and nearly five years at San Quentin, followed by parole. A later parole revocation for alleged excessive drinking led to a separate completed twelve-month term. Following his Christmas 1968 arrest, he remained in county jail and was transferred to San Quentin on February 18, 1969; Judge E. Warren McGuire released him on bond in January 1970. In November 1971 the court ordered him to report again, but the newspaper's complete account says authorities ultimately allowed him to remain outside prison under Adult Authority control.
The Black Panther, November 29, 1971, PDF page 3; The Black Panther, November 29, 1971, PDF page 18; The Black Panther, November 29, 1971, PDF page 19.
