The Victims of Innocence - Chet Pleban

Judge Joan Cardwell is back. As an assistant prosecutor many years ago, she prosecuted a black man for rape. After seventeen years in prison, Larry Jenkins contacts the Innocence Project proclaiming his innocence and seeking a DNA test. At the insistence of Cardwell, Karen Braxton, the elected prosecutor, resists the DNA test. Her resistance leads to an evidentiary hearing. As the evidence develops in the Jenkins case, the prior murder prosecution of Garner Lee, the son of Cassandra and Senator Winston Lee surfaces. Questions are raised as to whether that murder case was fixed by Braxton, Cardwell, Cassandra and Senator Lee to protect the senator’s gubernatorial candidacy. Did the senator put Cardwell on the bench and would the favorable resolution of the murder case be a payback?

As the Innocence Project and Jonathan Felbin gather the evidence for a DNA test, Braxton becaomes concerned. Something may not be right with the way Cardwell handled the Jenkins case. Did she prosecute and convict an innocent man who had spent the last seventeen years in prison for personal political gain? Was perjured testimony used to obtain the rape conviction? Although not involved in the decision to prosecute Larry Jenkins, Braxton was involved in the Garner Lee murder prosecution. Will her role along with the involvement of the Lees and Judge Cardwell be uncovered? Will Garner Lee who has repeatedly denied killing his girlfriend, Amy Deland, be exonerated with the identification of the real killer? Will Larry Jenkins be freed? Will Garner Lee and Larry Jenkins be vindicated? Or will Joan Cardwell, Karen Braxton, Cassandra and Winston Lee be allowed to remain in their offices as though they did nothing wrong?