Justice on Fire : The Kansas City Firefighters Case and the Railroading of the Marlborough Five / J. Patrick O'Connor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Connor, J. Patrick, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Edwards, Darlene M--Trials, litigation, etc.

Edwards, Darlene M.

Homicide investigation--Missouri--Kansas City.

Homicide investigation.

Arson investigation--Missouri--Kansas City.

Arson investigation.

Fire fighters--Missouri--Kansas City--Death.

Fire fighters.

Judicial error--Missouri--Kansas City.

Judicial error.

Trials (Homicide)--Missouri--Kansas City.

Trials (Homicide).

Trials (Arson)--Missouri--Kansas City.

Trials (Arson).

Marlborough (Kansas City, Mo.).

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 346 pages :) illustrations ;

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lawrence, Kansas : University Press of Kansas, [2018]

Summary:

"This is a powerful story that needs to be told-and O'Connor knows how to tell it, flashing his narrative chops from the get-go with a riveting description of the explosions. As he acknowledges, O'Connor is an 'advocate for the five convicted,' and it is important to view the book through that lens."-Daniel S. Medwed, author of Prosecution Complex: America's Race to Convict and Its Impact on the Innocent "In Justice on Fire J. Patrick O'Connor shows, step-by-step, how the American criminal justice system can fail. The tragic deaths of six Kansas City firefighters in a huge commercial explosion caused by arson generated intense pressure to solve the case. Likely perpetrators slipped away in a botched investigation by local police. Five years later the investigation was turned over to the federal ATF. After a TV special broadcast a 50,000 reward, a horde of jailhouse snitches and people from the rundown Marlborough community adjacent to the blast site came forward with wild and inconsistent stories based on rumor. Federal investigators and prosecutors, using hardball tactics, pieced together a conviction against the Marlborough Five that was based on a record number of informers. Most were paid off with reduced sentences or slivers of reward money. Trial testimony was wildly inconsistent, but a biased federal judge thwarted every defense attempt to penetrate the false testimony. In the years since, many of the witnesses have recanted and a federal investigation reported that two 'other' perpetrators-which the government refuses to name'exist. One of the Marlborough Five died in prison and one has been released based on his status as a juvenile sentenced to life imprisonment. Three others sit in prison while the palpable facts of an obvious miscarriage of justice are hidden from view by federal authorities more concerned with saving face than doing

justice."-Marvin Zalman, coeditor of Wrongful Conviction and Criminal Justice Reform: Making Justice.

Contents:

The last alarm

What went wrong?

Investigating the crime

Investigating the Marlborough neighborhood

The Marlborough five

Indicting the Marlborough five

The trial opens

The case against the Marlborough five

The defense

Closing arguments and verdict

Sentencing

Appeals

Affidavits of recantation

Mike McGraw

The Department of Justice investigation

Life in prison

Interviewing the original KCPD detectives

Resentencing of Bryan Sheppard

New evidence.

Notes:

Appeal in case decided in United States v. Edwards, 159 F.3d 1117 (8th Cir. 1998).

"This is a book about prosecutorial abuse on steroids that led to five wrongful convictions. Richard Brown, Darlene Edwards, Bryan Sheppard, Frank Sheppard, and Skip Sheppard were convicted in 1997 of causing the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters killed in an arson-fueled explosion on November 29, 1988"-- ECIP prologue.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 325-328) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780700626724

0700626727

OCLC:

1061139056