Dear VA-Histers:

 

I would like to invite you to the next in the Library of Virginia's noon
book talks.  On Wednesday, October 29, 2003, Margaret Edds will speak on
her book An Expendable Man: The Near-Execution of Earl Washington, Jr.
published by the NYU Press.  The book is available in the Library Shop
and a book signing will follow Ms. Edds's talk.  As a reporter and now
editorial writer for the Virginian-Pilot, the state's largest paper,
Margaret Edds interviewed Earl Washington Jr. extensively and worked
closely with his attorneys and all the principles of the case. She is
the author of two other critically acclaimed books: Free at Last and
Claiming the Dream: The Victorious Campaign of Douglas Wilder of
Virginia.  An Expendable Man has also received excellent reviews.  I
have attached a description of the book from the publisher below.

 _____________________________

 

"Whether you support or oppose the death penalty, you need to understand
what almost happened to a man named Earl Washington. Margaret Edds tells
his tragic, arresting story with remarkable sensitivity and a clear-eyed
understanding of the stakes not just for Earl Washington, but for all of
us."

-Larry J. Sabato, Director, Center for Politics, University of Virginia 

 

How 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.

 
Gregg D. Kimball
Director of Publications
  and Educational Services
Library of Virginia
804/692-3722
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