Raymond Bonner

5350. Anatomy of Injustice A Murder Case Gone Wrong, by Raymond Bonner (read 16 Feb 2016) This is an account of a murder in Greenville, S.C. in January 1982. An elderly widow living alone was murdered and her neighbor quickly pointed the police to a 23-year-old black man who sometimes worked for her, Edward Elmore. He was quickly charged though the evidence against him was thin. He went to jail, was quickly tried, poorly defended, and convicted and sentenced to death. The conviction was reversed on appeal but he was tried again, with the same incompetent defense counsel, and again convicted. That conviction was also overturned and he was tried a third time with the same result. The book tells of the efforts to save his life, and in 2012 he was finally freed from prison. The book was published before he was released and one had to go to Google to find the final result. The book is kind of wandering and one wishes it were more rigorous and more eager to be objective, though it is clear that Elmore should never have been convicted and sentenced to die. Non-lawyers might lose patience with the account but I found it fascinating. And I am glad they did not succeed in killing Elmore, who certainly should not have been convicted on the slim evidence that was presented.… (más)

A real life who-done-it, an indictment of the capital punishment system, this book covers the strange case of Edward Elmore, a poor, mentally slow black man railroaded onto death row for a crime he did not commit.

The book describes the work of capital punishment appellate lawyers, in particular, Diana Holt, as they try to get a new trial for Mr. Elmore in the slaying of an elderly white widow. It quickly becomes apparent that the prosecutor has a weak case, but one he enhances with questionable evidence.

Through the legal ups and downs, through the investigation, the author Raymond Bonner pursues the truth. Did Elmore do it? Why are so many pieces of evidence missing? Was the evidence tampered with?

The book makes a powerful argument that the death penalty is wrong because it is administered by flawed human beings.… (más)

A note to yourself, hang on to this book. Amazon reviews praised it. Now, in 2015 when we are so focused on Central America and the immigration situation thie is especially important, showing the relationship between these countries and the United States. Wikipedia: the author in context as relates to thie book: "Bonner is best known as one of two journalists (the other was Alma Guillermoprieto of The Washington Post) who broke the story of the El Mozote massacre, in which some 900 villagers at El Mozote, El Salvador, were slaughtered by the Salvadoran army in December 1981"… (más)