by Tim Junkin
In addition to learning from Kirk, I interviewed many of the people who participated in or reported on this real life drama. These include Kirk’s father, Noble Curtis Bloodsworth, Judge Robert Morin, Dr. Edward Blake, Judge William Hinkel, County Executive Judge James T. Smith, Robert Lazzaro, Ann Brobst, Steven Scheinin, Leslie Stein, David Henninger, Valerie Cloutier, Julia Bernhardt, George Burns, Gary Christopher, Ted Weisman, Peter Loge, Katy O’Donnell, Susan Levine, Judge Gerald Fisher, William McGinnis, Major Rufton Price, and Barry Scheck, among others. I was also assisted by Michael Tigar, Laura Burstein, Jayne Miller, Stephen Nolan, and Dr. Ravindar Dhallan. My thanks go out to all these people for their cooperation and help. Detectives Robert Capel and William Ramsey have both retired from police work. Requests for interviews were made to them through Major Rufton Price of the Baltimore County Police Department, but neither agreed to come forward.
In researching the events depicted in this book, I also relied extensively on the voluminous police and FBI notes and reports, legal correspondence and pleadings, trial exhibits, court documents, and trial transcripts concerning the Dawn Hamilton murder investigation and Kirk Bloodsworth’s trials, appeals, and exoneration. Additionally, contemporaneous news stories from the Baltimore Sun papers, the Times of Baltimore County, the News American, and the Washington Post became important secondary sources. I thank the reporters for these newspapers who wrote about the Dawn Hamilton murder investigation and the events surrounding Kirk Bloodsworth’s convictions and exoneration. The police reports and notes, the legal pleadings and notes, and the correspondence that I’ve reviewed and relied on are too numerous to list. I have attempted in the bibliography to name all other sources as well as a selection of letters specifically referred to in the book.
I am in debt as well to my editor, Shannon Ravenel, for her confidence, encouragement and skill, and particularly to Kristin Curran Junkin, for her research assistance, her many readings and suggestions, and her consummate patience and support.
KIRK BLOODSWORTH WISHES to express the following sentiments: He dedicates this story to God, for without him no things are possible; to his mother, who will always be with him; to his dad, whom he loves for all he endured and has done in helping to free him; and to Dawn Venice Hamilton and the Hamilton family. He wishes to thank Al Rose, and Anita, who will always be friends in Christ; Dave Bloodsworth and his cousin Cindy for standing by him when he was down; Janet Taylor, Pat Ryan, and, particularly, Bob Morin for helping to save him; the Justice Project and Wayne, Laura, John, Peter, Cynthia, Cheryl, Kim, Penny, Grace, Bobby, Wendy, and Lynn; Dick Dieter at the Death Penalty Information Center; Ginny and all his friends at the Constitution Project; John Rago, Maria, and his friends at the Duquesne Law School; the Lancer’s Club; Judge Hammerman; Kim Summers and Lynn; Shawn Ambrose; Larry Marshall and Rob Warden of the Northwestern Center on Wrongful Convictions; Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld; Jayne Miller; Mike Tricky; Jayne Henderson; Senator Patrick Leahy; Congressmen Bill Delahunt, Ray LaHood, and F. James Sensenbrenner Jr.; Jesse Jackson Jr. for letting his voice be heard; Aunt Frances; and he especially thanks his wife, Brenda, whom he considers the most wonderful woman on earth, and her fine family.
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A SHANNON RAVENEL BOOK
Published by
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Post Office Box 2225
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225
a division of
Workman Publishing
225 Varick Street
New York, New York 10014
For my children
© 2004 by Tim Junkin and Kirk Bloodsworth. All rights reserved.
Photograph on page 279 © 1998, The Washington Post. Photograph by Mary Lou Foy. Reprinted with permission.
This is a
true story. At the request of Kirk Bloodsworth, and for both privacy and security reasons, the names of a number of individuals with minor roles in the story have been changed.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for a previous edition of this work.
E-book ISBN 978-1-56512-710-4
Praise for Bloodsworth
“Kirk Bloodsworth’s name is more likely to be retained by history than most of the people you will read about in today’s newspaper. The first former death row inmate exonerated by DNA, Bloodsworth and his story are not only memorable, but gripping and revelatory as well. More than anything, Bloodsworth is a tale of courage and determination in the face of the law’s worst nightmare—the execution of an innocent man.”
—SCOTT TUROW, author of Presumed Innocent
“Bloodsworth may well be the most incredible and important true story ever written about a death row convict’s daily battle for survival, both in the cell block and in the courtrooms. . . . Hollywood should fight for this one.”
—JOSEPH WAMBAUGH, author of The Blooding
“This book does many things exceedingly well, among them making legal complexities clear and the frustrations of battling the system palpable.”
—SISTER HELEN PREJEAN, author of Dead Man Walking
“Bloodsworth is a powerful indictment of a death penalty system that is fundamentally broken. Kirk Bloodsworth is as compelling and decent to the core as any fictional character, but his story is shockingly real.”
—SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY
“A cautionary tale that grabs the attention and holds it.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A harrowing ‘fly on the wall’ look at an inmate struggling to survive on death row. Highly recommended.”
—Library Journal, starred review
“Should disturb any fair-minded reader on either side of the capital punishment debate.”
—Publishers Weekly
“[A] gripping and confounding true-crime esposé.”
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Tried and convicted for a sadistic murder he did not commit and then sentenced to death, Bloodsworth is an American Josef K.”
