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

Swenson, Kyle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250120233 ISBN 13: 9781250120236

Publisher: Picador, 2019

Synopsis

From award-winning investigative journalist Kyle Swenson, Good Kids, Bad City is the true story of the longest wrongful imprisonment in the United States to end in exoneration, and a critical social and political history of Cleveland, the city that convicted them.

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, Ohio. The prosecution’s case, which resulted in a combined 106 years in prison for the three men, rested on the more-than-questionable testimony of a pre-teen, Ed Vernon.

The actual murderer was never found. Almost four decades later, Vernon recanted his testimony, and Wiley, Kwame, and Rickey were released. But while their exoneration may have ended one of American history’s most disgraceful miscarriages of justice, the corruption and decay of the city responsible for their imprisonment remain on trial.

Interweaving the dramatic details of the case with Cleveland’s history―one that, to this day, is fraught with systemic discrimination and racial tension―Swenson reveals how this outrage occurred and why. Good Kids, Bad City is a work of astonishing empathy and insight: an immersive exploration of race in America, the struggling Midwest, and how lost lives can be recovered.

About this title

Review

An Amazon Best Book of February 2019: "This story is about more than three lives unjustly stolen; it's also about how a city can finally face down—and fix—its ugly past," says journalist Kyle Swenson about his investigation of three black teenagers arrested and convicted in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1970s for a crime they didn't commit. Good Kids, Bad City probes how these three young men became the victims of the sometimes overboiling racial tensions in Cleveland, and how a city's culture can sabotage justice. Still, a city's attitude is created—and changed—by the people who live there, and Good Kids, Bad City also celebrates the citizens who strive to make Cleveland a place they can be proud to call home. Much like Matthew Desmond's Evicted and Anna Clark's The Poisoned City, Swenson's connection to his subjects—the convicted men and their loved ones—is what delivers an emotional jab to the gut. This harrowing slice of urban dwellers' lives will affect readers who reside far beyond Cleveland's city limits. —Adrian Liang, Amazon Book Review

About the Author

KYLE SWENSON is a reporter for The Washington Post. A finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, he is also the recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for Feature Reporting. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, The New Republic, and Longreads. A graduate of Kenyon College, he lives in Washington, D.C.

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1250120233
• ISBN 13: 9781250120236
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304