Customer Reviews

Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA (Shannon Ravenel Books)

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This is not a feel good story of how the justice system ultimately worked to save an innocent man.

This is a terrifying story of how an innocent man was found guilty of a horrendous crime, not once, but twice, with full appellate review and decent lawyering at every level. A dozen people swore over and over that they saw him near the crime scene. Several testified that he made incriminating statements. All were dead wrong. He was no where near the crime scene. He never admitted to anything. Someone else killed that little girl--and remained free for a decade (and in fact raped others while Bloodsworth sat in prison).

But for the fact that DNA analysis was perfected, Kurt Bloodsworth would still be in prison, serving a life sentence, never to see freedom again, all for a crime he had absolutely no connection with.

But for the fact that an attorney filed a routine motion to preserve evidence, evidence which everyone agreed was useless, it would have been destroyed.

But for a stubborn defense attorney who decided to retest evidence which everyone had claimed contained no useful fluids--there would have been nothing for to test for DNA.

Sure Kurt Bloodsworth is special. All of these facts happened at the same time, at the right time, to enable him to prove he was innocent. But how many others are sitting in prison proclaiming their innocence do not have this "luck"--it is hard to use the word "luck" in connection with someone who spent over a decade in prison for a crime he didn't commit, and then another decade trying to prove he was innocent (not just "not guilty.").

Anyone who reads this book will come away with an entirely different view of the criminal justice system, the reliability of eyewitness testimony, and the infallibility of the police.

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.

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.

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.

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!

To see how far we've come in the world of science and its important link to criminology, one only needs to read "Bloodsworth", a stunning book about one man's being pulled back from the brink. Handed the death penalty after a first murder conviction and then two consecutive life sentences after a second trial, Kirk Bloodsworth worked tirelessly to clear his name. Coupled with that hard work and with the help of his attorney Bob Morin, who refused to give up on Kirk, this is a story of almost unfathomable proportion.


With a rat-a-tat delivery reminiscent of Dragnet's Joe Friday, author Tim Junkin not only tells the story of the 1984 murder of Dawn Hamilton but he paints a sympathetic portrait of Kirk Bloodsworth.... a man whose hard luck life would make it easier (or so it seemed) to convict him. Junkin does well in allowing us to get inside Kirk's head, and from that vantage point the story unfolds with layers of intrigue. Junkin's narrative style makes it hard to put down the book.


"Bloodsworth" is the best case I've seen to date regarding the inequality and unfairness in the application of the death penalty. While Junkin doesn't go overboard to present that side of the case he duly notes that "the United States is one of only a handful of industrialized countries that continues to execute its prisoners." That's a sobering statement and Tim Junkin, through the case of Kirk Bloodsworth, has offered an electrifying glimpse at what can happen to an innocent man. How many more Kirk Bloodsworths are out there, one can only imagine. This book is a powerful read and I highly recommend it.

This book is more than just an indictment of capital punishment driven by some anti-death penalty agenda. It is a well reported, well written account of how someone's life can so quickly spin out of control A story of how a few police oversights and corner cutting can result in a rush to judgement.

The author also covers well the human toll taken on the falsly accused. The ending encounter between the prosecutor and formerly accused is a powerful passage that is well written and captures the emotional toll - on both sides of the case - that is so often lacking from books about true crime.

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 we as a reader allow ourselves to visualize in the same situation; 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 made before his arrest and subsequent prosecution...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...Tim Junkin does a fabulouse job of showing Kirk Bloodsworth as sympathetic hero...Knowing he will be exonerrated in the end allows the reader the satisfaction of Putting up with the pain we see delievered to bloodsworth though his entire sad story.

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.

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.