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Good Kids, Bad City: A Story of Race and Wrongful Conviction in America

In the early 1970s, three African-American men―Wiley Bridgeman, Kwame Ajamu, and Rickey Jackson―were accused and convicted of the brutal robbery and murder of a man outside of a convenience store in Cleveland. The prosecution’s case, which resulted in a combined 106 years in prison for the three men, rested on questionable testimony of Edward Vernon, a pre-teen.

 

In 2011, Kyle Swenson, then a reporter for Cleveland Scene, published a report detailing the flaws in the murder investigation and calling into question Vernon's testimony. In 2014, almost four decades after the murder, Vernon recanted his testimony, and, through the work of the Ohio Innocence Project,  Wiley, Kwame, and Rickey had their convictions overturned and were released. Upon his release, Jackson had served more time behind bars – 39 years – than anyone who has ever been released from prison on a wrongful conviction, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

 

How could this happen? Swenson outlines what can be considered one of American history’s most disgraceful miscarriages of justice in his new book, Good Kids, Bad City: A Story of Race and Wrongful Conviction in America.  Interweaving the dramatic details of the case with Cleveland’s history―one that, to this day, is fraught with systemic discrimination and racial tension - the book reveals how and why this injustice occurred. 

Kyle Swenson
Reporter, The Washington Post, and author, Good Kids, Bad City: A Story of Race and Wrongful Conviction in America

Raymond Strickland
Reporter, WKYC-TV

 

Vince Grzegorek
Editor-in-Chief, Cleveland Scene

 

Dan Moulthrop
CEO, The City Club of Cleveland

Natalia Garcia is a digital producer for the education team at Ideastream Public Media.