A conversation with author David Rose about a murder trial gone wrong and what it tells us about the racial and economic bias in America's criminal justice system today.In 1986, Carlton Gary, a black man, was convicted of the 1979 rape and strangulation murders of seven elderly white women in the small but prosperous (for some) town of Columbus, Ga. Some of these women had ties to an exclusive group of wealthy and influential white families called The Big Eddy Club. Since then, Gary has been sitting on death row. He now waits for his final appeal.
Those initial crimes were horrific. But, the criminal justice system failings that followed were equally deplorable: Forced to produce and convict a killer, a frustrated and increasingly embarrassed set of local law enforcers, detectives and prosecutors subjugated crucial defense funds and evidence. Also eviscerated was the "due process" clause of the 14th Amendment that states, "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
With elegant prose and striking narrative, award-winning journalist David Rose investigates the deprivation of that due process and recounts the human and systemic toll of this crime within a crime in his book "The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice." The book is a vivid and thoroughly captivating exploration of the American criminal justice system. It is also impossible to put down.
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