Ronko Yamada

They were pointing out similar facial features.

What's more, the witnesses noticed that the person who shot Yip Yee Tak was about the same height.

The witnesses also described the shooter as being clean-shaven.

And Chol Soo had a mustache at the time of the murder.

But even though Chol Soo Lee didn't fit the description, he was the only person from the mug book that police brought to the station for a physical lineup.

Chol Su was marched into a room, stood shoulder to shoulder with a handful of random men, and the witnesses were asked to make an ID of the shooter.

Ronco and KW argued that police had been pushing the witnesses toward Chol Soo Lee the entire time.

But even if the police hadn't steered the witnesses toward Chol Soo Lee, there was another problem with their IDs, one that's explained in this TV news investigation of the case.

Research has shown that, quote, an eyewitness trying to identify a stranger is over 50 percent more likely to make a misidentification when the stranger and eyewitness are of different races.

And not a single one of the witnesses identifying Chol Soo Lee was Asian.

KW's articles about Chol Soo Lee hit the mainstream, and the majority of people read them and moved on with their lives.

But not everyone.

Some Korean Americans who read the stories were shaken enough to take action.

There were maybe 10 Koreans in this group, but Ronko Yamada had already begun to rally college students and youth activists in the Bay Area.

The Koreans in the valley were welcome allies in their fight to free Chol Soo Lee, which KW had helped them take public.

KW's articles became the opening argument in a trial of public opinion.

Activists and concerned Korean Americans took the article, ran to the nearest photocopier, and started shoving copies into the hands of anyone who would take it.

The article had given voice to a broad swath of Americans who felt voiceless and unseen.

KW had hoped to rally Korean Americans to Chol Soo's side.

The irony of it, though, is that what he helps to mobilize is a pan-Asian American movement.