04776nam 2201009Ia 450 991081238770332120240516123613.00-8147-2279-20-8147-2244-X1-4175-8820-910.18574/9780814722794(CKB)1000000000031440(EBL)865373(OCoLC)784884439(SSID)ssj0000151989(PQKBManifestationID)11170456(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000151989(PQKBWorkID)10322319(PQKB)10155454(MiAaPQ)EBC865373(OCoLC)58844985(MdBmJHUP)muse10898(DE-B1597)548053(DE-B1597)9780814722794(Au-PeEL)EBL865373(CaPaEBR)ebr10078479(EXLCZ)99100000000003144020021218d2003 uy 0engurcn|||||||||txtccrAn expendable man[electronic resource] the near-execution of Earl Washington, Jr. /Margaret Edds1st ed.New York New York University Press20031 online resource (260 p.)Description based upon print version of record.0-8147-2239-3 0-8147-2222-9 Includes bibliographical references and index.Front matter --Contents --Acknowledgments --Timeline --1. Countdown --2. Death in Culpeper --3. A Piedmont Son --4. Arrest --5. Confessions --6. The Trial --7. Prisoner --8. Deadline --9. A Discovery --10. Appeals --11. Strategies --12. An Ending --13. Revival --14. Freedom Delayed --15. The Aftermath --Notes --Recommended Reading --Index --About the AuthorHow is it possible for an innocent man to come within nine days of execution? An Expendable Man answers that question through detailed analysis of the case of Earl Washington Jr., a mentally retarded, black farm hand who was convicted of the 1983 rape and murder of a 19-year-old mother of three in Culpeper, Virginia. He spent almost 18 years in Virginia prisons—9 1/2 of them on death row—for a murder he did not commit. This book reveals the relative ease with which individuals who live at society's margins can be wrongfully convicted, and the extraordinary difficulty of correcting such a wrong once it occurs. Washington was eventually freed in February 2001 not because of the legal and judicial systems, but in spite of them. While DNA testing was central to his eventual pardon, such tests would never have occurred without an unusually talented and committed legal team and without a series of incidents that are best described as pure luck. Margaret Edds makes the chilling argument that some other “expendable men” almost certainly have been less fortunate than Washington. This, she writes, is “the secret, shameful underbelly” of America's retention of capital punishment. Such wrongful executions may not happen often, but anyone who doubts that innocent people have been executed in the United States should remember the remarkable series of events necessary to save Earl Washington Jr. from such a fate.African American prisonersBiographyDeath row inmatesUnited StatesBiographyPeople with mental disabilities and crimeUnited StatesBiographyDiscrimination in criminal justice administrationUnited StatesCapital punishmentMoral and ethical aspectsUnited StatesDNA fingerprintingUnited States19-year-old.1983.Culpeper.Earl.Expendable.Jr.Virginia.Washington.black.case.convicted.execution.explores.farm.hand.mentally.mother.murder.near.rape.retarded.three.African American prisonersDeath row inmatesPeople with mental disabilities and crimeDiscrimination in criminal justice administrationCapital punishmentMoral and ethical aspectsDNA fingerprinting364.66/092BEdds Margaret1947-1674163MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910812387703321An expendable man4038791UNINA