Manifest Injustice: The True Story of a Convicted Murderer and the Lawyers Who Fought for His Freedom
*Starred Review* Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Siegel has spent years following what he (and many others) believe to be the manifest injustice of a man imprisoned for 38 years for a double murder he has strenuously denied doing. The cold case dates back to May 24, 1962, when a young, engaged couple were discovered lined up next to their car in a Scottsdale, Arizona, lovers’ lane, each with a gunshot wound to the head. The news was shocking enough to push aside coverage of Scott Carpenter’s flight into space, and the case continued to grip the area through two trials and far into the imprisonment of Bill Macumber for the crime. Siegel creates a gripping narrative nonfiction treatment of what led to Macumber, a man with no connection to the murders, being convicted a decade after the killings, long after a confession by a repeat offender. The entries Siegel includes from Macumber’s prison diaries are heart-breaking in the day-to-day revelations of how he has kept his spirit and determination alive. Siegel also chronicles the work of the Arizona Justice Project, a forerunner of the Innocence Project in the U.S. On November 7, 2012, Macumber, now 77, was suddenly released from prison, which adds to the force of Siegel’s arguments and the outrage his advocacy journalism inspires about wrongful convictions and the fissures in the justice system. --Connie Fletcher