Vincent Chin
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- For the American mobster "Vincent the Chin" see Vincent Gigante.
Vincent Chin (Chinese: 陳果仁) (1955 – June 23, 1982) was a Chinese American industrial draftsman murdered in 1982 in the United States, in the Detroit, Michigan enclave of Highland Park by two white autoworkers, Chrysler plant superintendent Ronald Ebens and his recently laid off step-son, Michael Nitz. Raised in Detroit, Chin was the adopted son and the only child of Bing Hing Chin (Chinese: 陳炳興) and Lily Chin (Chinese: 陳余瓊芳). The murder was notorious since it was explicitly motivated by racial hatred towards Asian Americans based on the declining auto industry in Detroit. The case of Vincent Chin became a rallying point for the Asian American community as it's often considered the beginning of a pan-ethnic Asian American movement.[1]
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[edit] Legal history
On the night of June 19, 1982, a fight ensued at the strip club where Chin was having his bachelor party. The group was thrown out and after a heated exchange of words subsequently parted ways. Ebens and Nitz searched the neighborhood for 20 to 30 minutes before finding Chin at a McDonald's restaurant. Chin tried to escape, but was held by Nitz while Ebens repeatedly bludgeoned Chin with a baseball bat. Chin was struck at least four times with the bat, including blows to the head. When rushed to the hospital, he was brain-dead and died after four days in a coma. Ebens instigated the incident by declaring, "It's because of you little motherfuckers that we're out of work," referring to U.S. auto manufacturing jobs being lost to Japan, despite the fact that Chin was not Japanese.[2]
Ebens and Nitz were convicted in a county court for manslaughter, after a plea bargain brought the charges down from second-degree murder. They served no jail time, were given three years probation, fined $3,000 and ordered to pay $780.00 in court costs. Wayne County Circuit Judge Charles Kaufman[3] said, "These weren't the kind of men you send to jail... You don't make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal."
The verdict angered the Asian American community in the Detroit area and around the country.[4] Journalist Helen Zia and lawyer Liza Cheuk May Chan (陳綽薇) led the fight for federal charges. A 1984 federal civil rights case against the men found Ebens guilty and sentenced him to 25 years in prison; Nitz was acquitted. After an appeal, Ebens' conviction was overturned on a legal technicality in 1986 — a federal appeals court found an attorney improperly coached prosecution witnesses. After a retrial in 1987, Ebens was cleared of the charges by a jury in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Later, a civil suit against Ebens was settled out of court for $1.5 million, which would be paid to Chin's estate over time. But shortly before the verdict, Ebens disposed of his assets and fled.
[edit] Legacy
The murder is controversial because of the racial motivations of the attack and lenient sentencing[4] . The attack is a hate crime[2], but pre-dates hate crime laws in the United States. It is an example of why mens rea must be fully accounted for in racially motivated crimes. The actus reus of a strip club bar fight turned deadly, failed to describe the murder and the impact on other Asian Americans in the community.
Nevertheless, during a 1998 House of Representatives hearing on the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1997, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. suggested that the problem with the Vincent Chin case was "not racial" but that it was a political "hot potato" that did not get picked up for "political reasons" with respect to the automobile industry.[5]
Chin's case has been cited by some Asian Americans to allege the idea that they are seen as underprivileged citizens or "perpetual foreigners" compared to "real" Americans.[4][2] Chin's mother, Lily Chin, stated: "What kind of law is this? What kind of justice? This happened because my son is Chinese. If two Chinese killed a white person, they must go to jail, maybe for their whole lives... Something is wrong with this country."
In September 1987, not wanting to be reminded of her son's tragedy, Vincent Chin's mother, Lily Chin, moved from Oak Park, Michigan back to Guangzhou, China where she had grown up. She later returned to the United States for medical treatment in late 2001 and died on June 9, 2002. Prior to her death, Lily Chin had established a scholarship in Vincent's memory, to be administered by American Citizens for Justice.[6]
Chin was the subject of an 1989 Academy Award-nominated documentary by Renee Tajima and Christine Choy called Who Killed Vincent Chin?[7]
[edit] References
- ^ Alethea Yip. Remembering Vincent Chin. Asian Week. Retrieved on March 14, 2007.
- ^ a b c William Wei (2002-06-14). An American Hate Crime: The Murder of Vincent Chin. Tolerance.org. Retrieved on March 14, 2007.
- ^ Memoriam of Charles Kaufman at Wayne State University Law School
- ^ a b c C.N. Le. Asian-Nation: Anti-Asian Racism. Asian-Nation. Retrieved on March 14, 2007.
- ^ United States House of Representatives. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1997. Hearing. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved on March 14, 2007.
- ^ OCA Mourns Death of Lily Chin. Organization of Chinese Americans. Retrieved on March 14, 2007.
- ^ Multicultural Studies: Who Killed Vincent Chin?. Filmakers Library. Retrieved on March 14, 2007.
