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Detailed information on him can be found at http://www.freechip.org, titled "Free Chip Fitzgerald: 40 Years is Enough" for another innocent man, convicted for crime he didn't commit - now a "political prisoner, (a) prisoner of war" for his activism.
Fitzgerald belonged to the BPP's Southern California Chapter where a fellow member, Bruce Richard, called him tireless:
"in various capacities in the Westside office....To be a Panther was a 24/7 commitment, and every single day seemed like weeks due to the volume of activities during (the) explosive (1969, early 1970s) period. We were totally consumed in the Party's Free Breakfast Program (what Hoover most feared because of the community good will it fostered), the tutorial program, selling Panther papers, political education classes and other projects. Chip was a favorite of many in the communities we served, and the children, especially, loved him, reflected in their smiling little faces when he appeared...."
In September 1969, Fitzgerald was wounded and arrested during a police instigated shoot-out, tried for assault and other related charges, including Barge Miller's murder, a security guard at Vons Shopping Center in Los Angeles at 1:42AM.
Two men were seen fleeing, a witness, James Coleman, later identifying Fitzgerald as one of them, even though he said he couldn't see him clearly. In court, he then admitted he looked different from the man he identified, and during the investigation, he was shown photos, including Fitzgerald's, but didn't recognize him.
Because of his head wound, Fitzgerald wore a hard to miss two-inch bandage for close to a month, removing it several days before his October 9, 1969 arrest. Coleman said nothing about it in describing the man he saw. All the time, Fitzgerald denied being in the vicinity of Vons during the incident's early morning hours.
Nonetheless, at age 19, he was arrested, indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death despite his innocence, and remains a political prisoner.
In California v. Anderson (1972), the California Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in violation of Eighth Amendment protection against "cruel and unusual punishments" and the state's same constitutional ban. Along with 100 others on death row at the time, his sentence was commuted to life "with" the possibility of parole.
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