The riveting story of a 1985 double murder, a long-overdue investigation, and the fight to exonerate an innocent man.
In 1985, a white man walked into a South Georgia church and brutally murdered Harold and Thelma Swain, two pillars of the area’s Black community. Detectives at the time were unable to apprehend their killer. Twenty years later, police claims lead to the conviction of a local man, Dennis Perry, on a double life sentence.
When award-winning journalist and South Georgia native Joshua Sharpe retraces the case, he discovers a winding path of small-town corruption, devastating missteps, and secrets. Driven by a relentless pursuit of the truth, Sharpe considers another suspect—an alleged white supremacist who brags about committing the murders—and discovers explosive evidence that helps to overturn Perry’s wrongful conviction. In this gripping work of literary journalism, Sharpe finds closure to one of the most confounding cases in Georgia history and offers a moving examination of how we reckon with the sins of our past.
About the author
Joshua Sharpe is a print and audio journalist and editor whose stories have helped free two innocent people from life in prison. He is a 2023–2024 Knight-Wallace Fellow, Livingston Award winner, and a 2022 and 2023 Pulitzer Prize judge. He lives in the Detroit area.
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