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Vincent Chin (陳果仁) (1955 - June 23, 1982) was a Chinese American industrial draftsman killed in 1982 in suburban
Detroit, Michigan by two white
autoworkers - Chrysler plant superintendent Ronald Ebens and his recently laid off
step-son, Michael Nitz. The
murder was controversial because of Ebens mistaking Chin as Japanese,
and 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.
Raised in Detroit, Chin was the adopted son and the only child of Bing Hing Chin (陳炳興) and Lily Chin
(陳余瓊芳).
On the night of June 19, 1982, a fight among them 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 fast food restaurant. Chin tried to escape, but was held by Nitz while Ebens attacked 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 and Nitz were convicted in a county court for manslaughter, after a plea bargain brought the charges down from second-degree murder. They were given light punishment -- three
years probation and a $3,000 fine. Many considered it unfair justice.
In 1983, journalist Helen Zia and lawyer Lisa Chan led the fight for federal charges against the two. 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 US $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.
The case of Vincent Chin became a rallying point for the Asian Pacific American community, which had never before acted as a unified group in the United
States.
He was the subject of an 1989 Academy-award nominated documentary by Christine Choy called, "Who Killed
Vincent Chin?"
In September of 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 died on June 9,
2002.
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