The book I read this week was “Ghost of the Innocent Man” by Benjamin Rachlin
This book is the true story of a man named Willie Grimes, who was held in prison for 24 years, even though he was innocent. In July 1988, Willie Grimes was on trial for the gruesome rape of an elderly woman named Carrie Elliott. In reading through the evidence and statements offered, I truly do not know why he was found guilty of this crime.
Carrie Elliott was raped inside of her home by a man twice, and she decribed him as a man about 6 feet tall and weighing about 225. She remembered that he had a mole on his face, wore a green shirt and jeans. She also remembered that he was slurring his words from being intoxicated and had stubble on his face. She also said he ate two bananas and an apple from her kitchen table. A neighbor, named Linda, said the description sounded like Willie Grimes, and wanted the $1000 reward that came with notifying the police of the assailant.
The police officers who worked the scene of the crime took fingerprints from the fruit on the table, collected hair samples, and a rape kit. In 1988, this was before they did DNA testing routinely. So quite a few people were falsely accused of crimes and based their evidence on character witness accounts. Willie Grimes, had a solid alibi, and had a few other physical characteristics that Carrie would have mentioned should it have been him, such as one of his fingers being missing at the knuckle, and a large scar on his chest. Also, Willie was clean shaven at the time of his arrest. His was a case of the wrong place, wrong time, and poor police work.
Too quickly, a police force will want to wrap up a case and have a bias towards one way of thought, rather than truly looking at all angles of a case. And in this case, he was surely let down by the justice system. The forensic witness said the hair sample was “similiar” to Willie’s. It wasn’t ever tested for DNA, and they lost the sample after awhile, so when the DNA testing became available, they had no way to determine it. Also, they officers neglected to use the banana peels and apple core as evidence, they simply threw those away. They tested the fingerprints, and they did not match Willie Grimes. Years later, when they had a match for the real assailant, they still stalled on his release.
Learning about Willie professing his innocence, his lawyer trying his best to get him free, and seeing all the hardships he faced while in various prison systems was truly disheartening. In the end, he spent 24 years in prison, labeled as a sex offender and underwent many medical and psychological ailments while waiting to be set free. They did end up paying him $50,000 per year that he was incarcerated, but honestly, is that really justice?
The book referenced many cases of people who were wrongfully accused, and shared the history of the Innocence Project, conditions in various levels of prisons, and advocacy work people are doing to try to improve prisons. It was a captivating book that made me want to be involved more in prison reform when I leave this prison myself. I hope that in the future, the process of trials, sentencing and prisons are reformed to help bring true justice and rehabilitation to the ones involved.
Carolynne Parker (Noffsinger) 69123-510
