Skip to content

Joe Saiz

Released
Gender:Male
Race:Hispanic
Era:1930s
State:Colorado
Support
Joe Saiz

Biography

Joe Saiz was a Spanish-speaking sugar-beet worker convicted with two other young laborers of murdering farmer George Arnold near Brighton, Colorado. He was arrested and jailed on September 10, 1932. The International Labor Defense campaigned for the three, known as the Brighton Boys, and argued that the case rested on coerced confessions. The Colorado Supreme Court upheld the convictions in September 1933. Governor Edwin Johnson commuted their death sentences to life imprisonment in November 1933, citing an element of doubt. In December 1953, he was still imprisoned at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City.

Case

Charges: Murder of George Arnold near Brighton, Colorado.
Arrested: Sep 10, 1932
Incarcerated: Sep 10, 1932
Sentence: Death, commuted to life imprisonment in November 1933.
Convicted: Yes