Heavy Justice: the State of Indiana V. Michael G. Tyson: The State of Indiana v. Michael G. Tyson

In a colorful, behind-the-scenes account of boxer Mike Tyson's trial on the charge of date rape, a trial that became the center of a full-blown media circus, the prosecutor of the case explains how he obtained a conviction.

With the assistance of Purdue University history professor Roberts, Garrison, the prosecutor in the trial that convicted boxer Tyson of the "date rape" of beauty contestant Desiree Washington in Indianapolis in 1991, here presents the prosecution's case again. Tyson is shown as a cold, sadistic, sexually obsessed young man, all but washed up professionally. She is sweet and religious, seeming at times like an innocent child. That sexual relations between Tyson and Washington took place is not in dispute, but her willingness to make a 1:30 a.m. visit to the hotel room of a man who had apparently spent part of the day fondling the breasts and buttocks of other beauty contestants raises more questions about her naivete than the authors answer. In any event, Tyson was found guilty and sentenced to six years; the verdict is now under appeal.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Indianapolis special prosecutor who put heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson in prison for rape offers a trial recap full of interesting inside details. Aided by Roberts (History/Purdue; Jack Dempsey, 1974), Garrison, in the first quarter of the book, reconstructs the tangled early investigation of Tyson's July 1991 date rape of Desiree Washington, a teenage contestant in the Miss Black America pageant. Garrison's narrative gains momentum as he himself joins the case, concluding in his own mind that the intention of Desiree (as she's called throughout the book) in her late-night visit to Tyson's hotel room was innocent, not gold-digging. Energized for the fight, Garrison grills Tyson's former associate Jose Torres, who says a master boxer like Tyson can lie with conviction, and questions fellow prosecutors about Tyson's lawyer, Vincent Fuller, who successfully defended would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley. He offers much insight on trial strategy, including facing prospective jurors, eliciting powerful testimony from Washington, and cross-examining the confident Tyson, whose lawyers took the awkward tack of arguing that the defendant was so crude any woman would have known what she was getting into. Tyson got six years, and his appeals have so far failed. Garrison doesn't shy away from the racial overtones of the case, noting the ``enclave mentality'' of some black Tyson defenders, but he could have done more to question jurors about the case and to discuss Washington's civil litigation against Tyson. If a bit self-serving and understandably incomplete, a solid and readable account of a controversial case. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In 1992, Mike Tyson, former heavyweight champion of the world, was convicted of raping a beauty contestant who came to his hotel room. Tyson and his entourage painted her as a gold digger, a woman who consented to sex but then cried rape. Garrison, the attorney who prosecuted the case, and Roberts, a historian and boxing expert, tell instead the story of a naive but courageous young woman who convinced a jury that date rape is indeed painful, humiliating, and a crime. They detail how Tyson was seen by most sports experts as a man headed toward self-destruction; address the climate of the times, including the impact of the William Kennedy Smith trial and Clarence Thomas hearings; and, most importantly, present a very readable, yet nonlurid account of the pain a rape victim suffers, first at the attack and then at the trial. A terrific book for all collections, including sports, crime, and women's issues.
Sally G. Waters, Stetson Law Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Marion County, Indiana, prosecutor's office retained former prosecutor Garrison to handle the state's case against former heavyweight champion Tyson for the alleged July_ 19, 1991, rape of Miss Black America contestant Desiree Washington; Purdue history professor Roberts has written books about boxing champs Jack Dempsey and Jack Johnson. Their collaboration describes the highly publicized confrontation from the state's side of the courtroom: from Tyson's arrival at the Indianapolis Black Expo and Garrison's recruitment as prosecutor in October 1991 through the case's pretrial motions, voir dire, and trial itself, and up to the Indiana Court of Appeals' August 6, 1993, denial of Tyson's appeal as argued by a flamboyant Alan Dershowitz. Heavy Justice fleshes out the tabloid drama's dozens of characters--attorneys and police officers, witnesses and court personnel--to produce an engrossing narrative. The her-word-against-his nature of the charge polarized public opinion about this sensational case, but devotees of Court-TV and Grisham best-sellers will want to wallow in the details despite the authors' commitment to one side in this ongoing controversy. Mary Carroll