astro
October 20, 2004, 1:41am
1
True local story that I thought might be of some interest
Book tells Bloodsworth tale
Eleven years after Bloodsworth became the first person in the country to be exonerated by DNA evidence after being convicted in a death penalty case, he’s getting the chance to tell his full story. “Bloodsworth,” written by author and attorney Tim Junkin, was published last month by Algonquin Books.
“It literally scares people,” said Bloodsworth, who was wrongly convicted twice of raping and bludgeoning a 9-year-old Baltimore County girl to death. “They don’t want to believe something like this could happen.”
The book tells for the first time Bloodsworth’s story in detail: why he was picked up for the crime (one anonymous tip out of 500 told authorities he looked like a composite sketch) and how he was convicted by two juries (eyewitnesses testified they saw someone nearby who looked like him).
Junkin, a Washington, D.C., attorney who spent childhood summers on Bloodsworth’s native Eastern Shore, tells the details from Bloodsworth’s point of view - the bewildering, terrifying ordeal that spun out of control within hours of his arrest.
astro
October 20, 2004, 1:42am
2
Sorry - was supposed to be MPSIMS - Will ask a mod to move
Moving this from IMHO to MPSIMS.
Revtim
October 20, 2004, 2:54am
4
Yeah, I find this pretty scary. It’s tough to imagine anything more horrifying.
I agree it is scary. It’s not too hard to imagine something more horrifying though - like perhaps the ordeal of the 9 year old girl, for example.
Do you really think he didn’t suffer much the same things in jail that she did at the hands of the perpetrator?
Well, he’s still breathing, unlike the original victim, so he didn’t suffer much the same things.
I’m not trying to minimize the tragedy of his conviction, but I don’t think equating it to the murder of a child is accurate either.
muldoonthief:
Well, he’s still breathing, unlike the original victim, so he didn’t suffer much the same things.
I’m not trying to minimize the tragedy of his conviction, but I don’t think equating it to the murder of a child is accurate either.
Yeah, a scared 9 year old being raped, with little or no understanding of why, or even what is going on = absolute terror. If she had survived, it probably would have been traumatic enough to affect every aspect of the rest of her life.
Prison rape, while awful, is not in the same league, IMO. The victim at least is a well-formed emotional being, and understands the reasons and consequences.