Henry Leyvas

Henry Leyvas was the lead defendant in the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial, accused by Los Angeles County prosecutors of being the ringleader in the August 2, 1942 killing of José Díaz at a reservoir near Commerce, California. Convicted of first-degree murder in January 1943 by an all-white jury after a mass trial of twenty-two Mexican-American youths. The convictions were unanimously reversed by the California District Court of Appeal in October 1944 in People v. Zammora.