Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA

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Summary: Quick - Fix - Guilty! (?)
Review: A frightening true story of an innocent man. Kirk's drive to prove his innocense saved his life (nearly 10 years later). A shameful display of our justice system at work. It's time for all of us to wake us and realize what's going on in "the system." This is a must read!

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Summary: Uplifting and Inspiring... A Book to be Remembered
Review: I picked up Tim Junkin's book, Bloodsworth, and I couldn't put it down. I read it over one weekend. I found Bloodsworth to be one of the most amazing, gripping, and powerful stories I've ever read. It does what we all hope a good book will do. Bloodsworth captivated me, it taught me about the criminal justice system, the terrifying world of prison, and how easily an innocent man can be wrongfully convicted. It caused me to rethink long-held beliefs about the death penalty and other aspects of our justice system. Finally, I found Bloodsworth to be uplifting and inspiring as ultimately, it is a story of triumph, miracles, and grace. Junkin's Bloodsworth is a testament to the indomitable human spirit.

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Summary: The real world criminal justice system
Review: In spite of all he has been through, Kirk Bloodsworth is a lucky man. Wrongly convicted of a brutal crime, Bloodsworth spent nine years in prison. He is a member of a growing club of men and women, 115 at the time of this book's publication, who were sentenced to death before eventually being exonerated and cleared. The growing rolls of innocent people, exonerated and freed, is now causing reassement of how our criminal justice system works.

During an attack in the prison, his name - Kirk Noble Bloodsworth - played a role in saving him. Today, his name is known because he was the first person to spend time on death row whose exoneration came about because of DNA evidence.

This book is a roller coaster ride, and the drama doesn't let up until the very last page. In spite of his exoneration, Bloodsworth's prosecutor continued to state her belief that he was guilty. Ten years after his exoneration and release, another sample of evidence was finally tested and matched to the real murderer. Only then did Kirk Bloodsworth receive an apology from the prosecutor.

Bloodsworth now speaks on behalf of The Justice Project, and advocates passage of federal legislation, the Innocence Protection Act. Author Tim Junkin and Bloodsworth are currently involved in a wide-ranging book tour and you may get the opportunity to hear Kirk Bloodsworth in person.

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Summary: Truth is better then Fiction
Review: Its very cool to know the result of a book before the fact. We know that Bloodsworth gets exonerated, but going back in time we can now visualize the railroad that put him away and put ourselves in the same boat...being accused of a crime we did not commit. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time is a fear we all have hidden inside our souls. For all the mistakes Bloodsworth did and helping himself get prosecuted...he makes up for them all by playing the cliche of an innocent man locked up to a tee. If I was found guilty of a crime that I did not commit; I would do the exact same thing Bloodsworth did; write everybody in the world and plead my innocence...Junkin (author) does a great job of making making Bloodsworth a sympathetic hero..This book opened my eyes to the fact that there are thousands of innocent people locked up all over the world.

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Summary: Innocent Beyond A Reasonable Doubt
Review: Kirk Bloodsworth is not just innocent. He is innocent to a very high standard. He is innocent beyond a reasonable doubt. He was innocent by our legal standards even before his exoneration by the DNA test. As you read the book you will learn that Kirk Bloodsworth was never at any point in the ten year ordeal guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In spite of this fact he was put on death row when he had nothing to do with the crime.

Our best protection in the system is that guilt must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet, in this case the prosecution, the judge and the jury ignored this protection. Kirk was never at any point proved to be quilty beyond a reasonable doubt. His conviction was obtained primarily by very imperfect eyewitness testimony that never reached the stardard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

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Summary: A Broken System
Review: Over the past decade we have had to face the sad conclusion that our criminal justice system has something badly wrong with it. Convictions based on eyewitness identifications and physical evidence persuasive enough to convince a jury have later been shown by DNA testing to be completely erroneous. DNA testing is taken for granted now although there is still reluctance on the part of some prosecutors to allow tests to be made on old specimens, and many of the specimens have been discarded down the years. The story of one of the first of these cases is told in _Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA_ (Algonquin Books) by Tim Junkin. It is a hellish story of justice gone wrong, and there is plenty of blame to go around; but it is also the story of Kirk Bloodsworth's undying confidence that his conviction would be set right, and the idealistic lawyers who listened to him and eventually made it so.

In 1984, nine-year-old Dawn Hamilton was raped, sodomized, and killed in a wooded area near Baltimore. A composite sketch was produced on the evidence of seven- and ten-year-old boys, and the sketch eventually was connected, despite dissimiliarities, to Kirk Bloodsworth, an ex-Marine. Much of the book shows how the righteous confidence of detectives and prosecutors lead them to rationalize away any parts of the evidence and identifications that did not fit. Bloodsworth was eventually put on a disgusting death row, and as an accused and then convicted child molester and killer, he was detested by the thugs in prison who assaulted him in different, disgusting ways. He did not give up; he wrote letters every day to anyone he could think of who might help, and eventually found a lawyer who had power to get the evidence reexamined.

Bloodsworth was freed, and the prosecutors, because he pushed for the tests, now had a DNA sample to match, but they did almost nothing to pursue the real killer until Bloodsworth insisted on action. The DNA sample revealed the real killer, a man who had been able during the time Bloodsworth was in jail to commit further crimes. There is a powerful chapter near the end in which Bloodsworth confronts a prosecutor after the killer had been found; she requested the meeting to tell him. He tells her, "I have hated you for twenty years. You have called me a monster..." He extends forgiveness, which is significant, but he has also been inspired to try to make changes in the system that nearly killed him. He is, of course, against the death penalty, and is campaigning against the conservative lawmakers who insist that the widespread use of DNA testing is too expensive and causes frivolous delays in sentencing. He has appeared before Congress on behalf of the Innocent Protection Act, which eventually made money available to provide funds for DNA testing, a program called the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Grant Program. Junkin is a lawyer and a novelist, and has told the details of this case plainly and with no unnecessary drama. He has successfully, but not oppressively, tied this particular instance to the general problem of basic judicial fairness. In the book, justice gets done, but it is dangerously delayed, and comes only because of remarkable courage on the part of an ordinary man, persistence by idealistic defense lawyers, Bloodsworth's parents who condemned themselves to poverty to pay for some degree of justice for their son, and the eventual application of the new evidence technology. Those circumstances were eventually good enough to get him freed; it is wrong to expect that such circumstances will consistently make the system fair.


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Summary: This book is a lesson in trusting the "powers that be."
Review: This book captures the essence of the "game" that has become our justice system. So often the truth takes a back seat to an arrest, an indictment, a conviction. There is more than one person in this book who should look themself in the mirror and say, "I have failed miserably and it almost cost a man his life."

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Summary: A STORY FOR RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT
Review: This book has enough emotion in it to supply a host of other books. This true crime story will show you what the human being is capable of (both bad and good) in the name of Kirk Bloodsworth. He was convicted twice for the same crime and in the end it was proved without any doubt that he was innocent. He was on death row for many years and you learn all about a convict's life in prison. There were only two people responsible for him being released and that was himself with incredible persistance over years and an attorney later on who finally believed him. Hundreds of death row inmates have been released due to DNA proof, but Kirk was the first. A gripping story that makes you turn the pages.

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Summary: A Great Read!
Review: This book reads like a thriller crime novel, yet it's a true story about a tragic murder and a flawed and misguided police investigation and prosecution. It rivets the reader, who, though partially aware of the outcome, can't help but be floored by the final twists and turns the story takes. It is packed with human drama and colorful, memorable characters who are brought to life on the pages. It is also a chronicle filled with human pathos: tragedy, horror, grief, unimaginable injustice, courage, endurance, and ultimately triumph over seemingly impossible obstacles. It is written by an author who doesn't flinch from the facts, no matter how disturbing, or from human failings, no matter the consequences. The question I've always had, of how a truly innocent person could be convicted, was answered. The prison scenes were incredible. I learned a great deal from reading this book. The images it conjured remain vivid. Highly recommended.

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Summary: Bloodsworth review
Review: This is a brilliant book that should be widely read. It grabbed me immediately and held on until the end. Crime writer Joseph Wambaugh correctly observed in his jacket blurb that the ending would never be believed as fiction! I can see why Scott Turow, Wambaugh, and Sister Helen Prejean (of Dead Man Walking fame) praised this book. The story is more frightening than any Stephen King nightmare, but it is all true. The author recreates the horror of the crime, the massive but flawed police investigation, the FBI profiling and handling of forensic evidence, the fiercely fought jury trials. Anyone who reads this book cannot help but reflect on whether he or she would have even survived in the prison where Bloodsworth was sent to die. Bloodsworth's courage, his unrelenting fight against impossible odds, and his triumph over injustice is inspiring and unforgettable. This is an amazing story. The book is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to intelligently discuss the issue of capital punishment in this country.