Activist lawyer Susan Jordan killed in plane crash

Activist lawyer Susan Jordan killed in plane crash
By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP special Correspondent

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

(06-02) 18:54 PDT LOS ANGELES, (AP) --

Susan B. Jordan, an activist lawyer who represented high-profile clients such as Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson, has been killed in a plane crash in southern Utah, authorities said.

Jordan, 67, of Ukiah, Calif., was the passenger in a two-seater plane that crashed Friday after clipping a power line, said Garfield County sheriff's spokeswoman Becki Bronson. The pilot, John Austin, 64, of Boulder, Utah, was also killed.

Sheriff's officials said the pilot may have been flying too low near State Highway 12 halfway between Escalante and Boulder, Utah.

Jordan, who practiced in the San Francisco area for many years, came to prominence in the 1970s when she represented clients on the fringes of the Patty Hearst trial. She also gained fame for a landmark case of rape victim Inez Garcia who was convicted of killing one of her attackers. In a 1977 retrial, Jordan won Garcia's acquittal on grounds that she acted in self defense.

"She believed in social change through law and the Inez Garcia case changed the law," said attorney Stuart Hanlon who practiced with her in the Bay Area. When she began, he said, Jordan drew attention because "she was this amazing attorney who was a woman and there were not that many around."

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/06/02/national/a185425D31.DTL&tsp=1