Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA (Shannon Ravenel...

Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA (Shannon Ravenel Books) | Tim Junkin | Bloodsworth- a kind man

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Bloodsworth: The T...

	Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA (Shannon Ravenel Books) Tim Junkin A Shannon Ravenel Book, 2004 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Charged with the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in 1984, Kirk Bloodsworth was tried, convicted, and sentenced to die in Maryland's gas chamber. From the beginning, he proclaimed his innocence, but when he was granted a new trial because his prosecutors improperly withheld evidence, the second trial also resulted in conviction; this time he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. In jail Bloodsworth read every book on criminal law available in the prison library. When he stumbled across the first use (in England) of genetic fingerprinting, he persuaded a new lawyer to try for the then innovative DNA testing.

After nine years in one of the harshest prisons in the country, Kirk Bloodsworth was vindicated by DNA evidence. He was pardoned by the governor of Maryland and has gone on to become a tireless spokesman against capital punishment.

Bloodsworth exposes the details of inevitable human error in a capital murder case and in a legal system gone awry. And it tells the story of how one man, through dogged tenacity and courage, saved his own life and the lives of many other innocent men on death row.

This is a page-turner of a book that will move hearts and change minds.

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Excellent account of troubling case

Tim Junkin does an excellent job of recounting the horrid turn of events that led to Kirk Bloodsworth's arrest, indictment, conviction, and second conviction for a crime he didn't commit. Neither Bloodsworth nor Junkin ever lose sight of the fact that an appalling crime was committed, and Junkin is not afraid to show Bloodsworth, warts and all.

The arrogance of the prosecution in this case is staggering. Even when faced with incontrovertible evidence that the wrong man had been charged, convicted, sentenced to death, and incarcerated for years on end, the prosecutor's office refused to acknowledge that it had been mistaken. Moreover, it waited a decade after Bloodsworth's exoneration to run the DNA it had through CODIS. Unbelievable.

The quibbles I have with the book are few. I wish there had been a detailed index. While the bibliography is immensely helpful, I wish it had included some texts by Elizabeth Loftus or Robert Buckout on the unreliability of eyewitness testimony. In fact, Buckout was hired as an expert by Bloodsworth's defense team in his first trial, but incredibly not permitted by the court to testify. Finally, like many nonfiction books about legal cases, Junkin's book begins almost at the end of the story and then backtracks, finally picking up the story's final threads again toward the end of the book. This tack leads to some overlap and redundancy in storytelling. It may be bothersome to some readers. Is any one of these complaints enough to merit subtracting an entire star from a review of the book? No. Maybe half a star, if that.

If the book Bloodsworth interests you, you might also want to look at the website [...] for more information about the wrongfully convicted and how dedicated lawyers,scientists, and lay people are helping them to see the light of day again.

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Bloodsworth- a kind man

I met Kirk Bloodsworth on an airplane ride, and what an amazing person. His perserverance and positive attitude about his experience is true. The book is a true reflection of the man.

A Must Read

I have never taken the time to review a book on this site but if any book ever deserved it, it is this book. This is the story of the first death row inmate ever exonerated by DNA evidence. I have long held the opinion that the death penalty should be abolished because our system simply isn't reliable enough to impose that ultimate punishment that can never be righted should the system have failed. This book is real, concrete, powerful, moving proof of that idea.

Kirk Bloodworth spent 9 years of his life locked in prison, cockroaches crawling all over him, inmates urinating through the front grate in his cell because he was a "child killer", the guards forcing him to paint the gas chamber where he was awaiting execution. He missed his mother's funeral, lost his 20's, was forced to turn into a near animal just to survive, and had to think daily that he was going to be killed by poisonous gas or spend the rest of his life in prison for something he did not do. Can you even imagine what that must feel like?

This was an incredible book and I think everyone should read it. We need to know the stories of people like Kirk Bloodworth because there are many more of them out there and we owe it to them to at least be aware. And, even though you know the main outcome of the book before you start, it still managed to have a surprise ending that literally gave me goosebumps. Definitely add this to your "to read" list.

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Three Florida cases: Jerry Rogers, Roy Swafford, Peter Ventura

Jerry Layne Rogers, Sr. -- wrongfully convicted and innocent. From 1989 - 1992, I was his investigator at CCR [The Office of Capital Collateral Representative, a state agency representing death-sentenced persons].

Mr. Rogers' case consisted in 1992 of at least 80 boxes of documents, from court files, prosecutor and law enforcement files, trial and evidentiary hearing transcripts, etc. Mr. Rogers's case was the largest and most complicated that CCR has ever represented that I am aware of.

The second largest and most complicated was that of Mr. Gerald Stano, whose lead attorney during most of the development of his case was Mark E. Olive.

In 1995, Mr. Rogers began receiving pro bono representation from the Washington, D.C. law firm Covington and Burling. The result was an unanimous Florida Supreme Court (FSC) 26 page opinion ordering a new trial in Mr. Rogers' case due primarily to prosecutorial misconduct, in particular Brady v. Maryland violations.

To read the opinion, go to the FSC website, then at "Public Information", to the recent opinions, to the year 2001, then toward the bottom at February 15, 2001, one will find the FSC opinion.

During the summer of 2002, Mr. Rogers was re-convicted, however sentenced to life upon the jury recommendation. Now twice Mr. Rogers has been wrongfully convicted.

In 2004, the Florida 5th District Court of Appeal denied relief. The FSC declined to accept jurisdiction and thus denied the petition for review.

Mr. Rogers' case is pending Federal review.

For those interested in reading the narrowly decided by four to three vote Florida Supreme Court opinions regarding two more death sentenced persons whose innocence is an authentic issue, please go to the FSC website, then go to the recent opinions, then chose the correct year and scroll down to the following two cases:

Roy Swafford: April 18, 2002

Peter Ventura: May 24, 2001

Additionally, the issue in the below cases is DNA testing that proves that Roy Swafford did not rape Brenda Rucker:

Roy Swafford: March 26, 2004 Case Nos. SC03.931 and SC03.1153

Please also read other books about Florida's death row by David von Drehle and Michael Mello - also availabe at Amazon.

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ANNOYING

BLOODSWORTH is well-written and provocative and interesting. But Kirk Bloodsworth in his youth was not a sympathetic character. Had he been executed, it wouldnt be a great loss to society. He comes across as a kid with no future, in bad company, going from one buzz to the next. I suspect the murder rap saved him from a pedestrian execution by his doper companions. His antics and histrionic emotional displays are annoying. Bloodworth's sense of entitlement is annoying. And youre compelled to wonder about what sort of criminal nonsense he got away with before the murder rap.

Yet, his situation occurs all the time. When the child-savers and newspapers and cops and prosecutors get into a feeding frenzy, such as Bloodsworth experienced, they want blood. And it is a career killer for anyone in the system to champion a contrary theory that exonerates the defendant. Been there, done that.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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