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When Truth Is All You Have
A Memoir of Faith, Justice, and Freedom for the Wrongly Convicted
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"No one has illuminated this problem more thoughtfully and persistently." —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy
Jim McCloskey was at a midlife crossroads when he met the man who would change his life. A former management consultant, McCloskey had grown disenchanted with the business world; he enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary at the age of 37. His first assignment, in 1980, was as a chaplain at Trenton State Prison. Among the inmates was Jorge de los Santos, a heroin addict who'd been convicted of murder years earlier. He swore to McCloskey that he was innocent—and, over time, McCloskey came to believe him. With no legal or investigative training to speak of, McCloskey threw himself into the case. Two years later, thanks to those efforts, Jorge de los Santos walked free, fully exonerated.
McCloskey had found his calling. He established Centurion Ministries, the first group in America devoted to overturning wrongful convictions. Together with his staff and a team of forensic experts, lawyers, and volunteers—through tireless investigation and an unflagging dedication to justice—Centurion has freed 65 innocent prisoners who had been sentenced to life or death.
When Truth Is All You Have is McCloskey's inspirational story, as well as those of the unjustly imprisoned for whom he has fought. Spanning the nation, it is a chronicle of faith and doubt; of triumphant success and shattering failure. It candidly exposes a life of searching and struggle, uplifted by McCloskey's certainty that he had found what he was put on earth to do.
Filled with generosity, humor, and compassion, it is the soul-bearing account of a man who has redeemed innumerable lives—and incited a movement—with nothing more than his unshakeable belief in the truth.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
July 14, 2020 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593215722
- File size: 297293 KB
- Duration: 10:19:21
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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May 4, 2020
McCloskey’s engaging memoir depicts his transformation from a spiritually unfulfilled business consultant to a minister working to free wrongfully accused prisoners. Thirty-seven-year-old McCloskey quits his job and enrolls at the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he discovers his mission while working as a prison chaplain at New Jersey’s Trenton Psychiatric Hospital in 1980 as part of his training. There, he meets Jorge de los Santos, a convicted murderer who denies committing the crime. McCloskey leaves the seminary temporarily to pore over 2,000 pages of court records and makes the case for de los Santos’s innocence. McCloskey enlists the help of a sympathetic lawyer to file an appeal based on a faulty eyewitness account, and, three years later, they win (“I was Humphrey Bogart, tracking down the Maltese Falcon; I was Philip Marlow and Sam Spade, all wrapped up into one” ). Soon after, McCloskey establishes Centurion Ministries, an inmate advocacy organization. McCloskey is an engaging narrator, and his ensuing stories of 12 cases detail both successes and heartbreaking losses, including two cases in which prisoners were executed. Among his team’s successes—they’ve won the release of 63 wrongfully convicted inmates across the country—is Joyce Ann Brown, a mother wrongfully accused of robbing and killing a Dallas furrier in 1980, and who, after her release, formed her own advocacy group for women behind bars. McCloskey’s inspiring stories form a moving collective profile.
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