Anatomy of Injustice.

• Author: Mandell, David

Anatomy of Injustice By Raymond Bonner

January 14, 1982, was an unusually cold day in Greenwood, South Carolina. The focus on the weather was broken by the discovery of the body of Dorothy Edwards, a 76-year-old widow. A neighbor called police and told them he looked after Mrs. Edwards and had found her body in the closet. The call began a long battle over capital punishment, the subject of Raymond Bonner's book, Anatomy of Injustice.

Bonner begins with the arrest of a suspect, Edward Elmore, and follows his three trials and many appeals. Bonner views the investigation and prosecution as an injustice of incompetence, bigotry, and politics. Elmore, a mildly retarded young man, worked as a handyman doing occasional jobs for Mrs. Edwards. Police quickly arrested him, and the solicitor charged him with a capital crime. Bonner reports that although Elmore received two defense attorneys, their role was essentially cosmetic. He was quickly convicted and sentenced to death.

Elmore received a competent appellate attorney, and the trial verdict was overturned. A new trial was ordered, but he was assigned the same defense attorneys, and the result didn't change. The jury again ordered the death penalty. Elmore was given a third death penalty trial after the U.S...