Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barry Siegel tells the gripping legal drama of a man who has spent almost forty years in prison for murders he denies committing and the tenacious lawyers who believe in his innocence. The journey begins in 1962 when the murder of two young people on an isolated lovers' lane in the desert bewildered the inexperienced sheriff's department of Maricopa County, Arizona. Despite a few promising leads - including several chilling confessions from a violent repeat offender - the case went cold. More than a decade later, an ambitious new clerk in the sheriff's department told investigators that her estranged husband was the man responsible. And though scant evidence aside from his soon-to-be ex-wife's accusation linked Macumber to the crime, he was found guilty. The Macumber case, rife with extraordinary irregularities, attracted the attention of the Arizona Justice Project, one of the most respected non-profit groups that represent victims of manifest injustice throughout the country.
This story illuminates the troubling nature our justice system, which has kept a possibly innocent man locked up for forty years, and introduces readers to the dedicated lawyers who are working to fix the system. With precise journalistic detail and riveting storytelling, Barry Siegel will change your understanding of American jurisprudence, police procedure, and what constitutes justice in our country.
The first book I read by Barry Siegel was Claim of Privilege , I was absolutely mesmerized by the book. Amazed that the government could withhold information from family members on the loss of their loved ones.
Manifest Injustice, like Just Mercy tells the story of a man caught in grips of a legal system gone awry. It is hard to understand exactly how our legal system gets so messed up. After reading Unfair I understand how juries are manipulated by lawyers,expert witnesses and judges that have agendas.
What interests me was it Bill Macumber who was the sociopath or was it his wife that lied? Nobody seemed to care that his wife lied. What was really going on between those two?
Obviously spending 37 years behind bars has to have an effect on one's personality but it saddened me to find that Bill Macumber was found guilty of child sex abuse less than 12 months after he being released from prison, very sad indeed.This review was originally posted on The Pfaeffle Journal
