Member of infamous 'San Quentin 6' killed by fellow inmate

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Hugo Pinell, a notorious killer with ties to the 1960s and 1970s black revolutionary movement, spent the last 45 years in California's prison isolation units partly for his own protection. Just days after he was moved into the general prison population, fellow inmates stabbed him to death in an exercise yard.

Now family members are demanding answers, arguing that authorities at the state prison east of Sacramento should have known he would be a marked man. Pinell, 71, became infamous a generation ago for his role as one of the San Quentin 6, helping to slit the throat of San Quentin prison guards during a failed 1971 escape attempt that killed six.

"He has been a target from just about every group in prison because of his notoriety and what he did years ago," Keith Wattley, his attorney, said a day after the killing on Wednesday. "This was foreseeable, which is what makes it so much worse and why the family is looking for answers as to why prison officials let this happen."

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