March 21, 1981: Times reporter Bill Farr (d. 1987) has the story of Josephus Jackson, who was partially paralyzed from being shot in the back by a liquor store clerk over a 55-cent can of beer.

Richard Craig Scott was sentenced to a year in jail after being charged with a misdemeanor because the district attorney’s office refused to file felony charges. Then-Dist. Atty. John K. Van de Kamp agreed with Judge David Horowitz that the case should have been handled as a felony but defended the decision not to file charges  as “a good faith error.”
 
Farr, who died of cancer at the age of 52, is probably best known for going to jail for refusing to reveal sources during the Manson family trial.

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The Manson family on the Daily Mirror