Biography
Larry Zaino was a U.S. Army soldier and one of the "Presidio 27" — the stockade prisoners at the Presidio of San Francisco who, on October 14, 1968, staged a sit-down protest against brutal conditions and the killing of a fellow prisoner, Richard Bunch, who had been shot in the back by a guard three days earlier. Singing "We Shall Overcome" and reading out a list of grievances, the men were charged with mutiny, a capital offense. On appeal in June 1970 the mutiny convictions were reduced to willful disobedience, and Larry Zaino was released from confinement on April 7, 1970. The Congressional Record distinguishes that individual custody endpoint from the later appellate decision. Source: Congressional Record, August 6, 1970, p. 27642.
Robert Sherrill’s 1970 account identifies Joseph Manzella as defense counsel in Zaino’s first Presidio trial. It describes his objection that the panel was drawn from infantry officers rather than a broader cross-section. The reported objection supplies defense context, without changing the recorded sentence or custody dates.
Robert Sherrill (1970), reprinted in Cox Commission materials.
