Good Kids, Bad City: A Story of Race and Wrongful Conviction in America

From award-winning investigative journalist Kyle Swenson, Good Kids, Bad City is the true story of the longest wrongful imprisonment in the United States to end in exoneration, and a critical social and political history of Cleveland, the city that convicted them. In the early 1970s, three African-American menùWiley Bridgeman, Kwame Ajamu, and Rickey Jacksonùwere accused and convicted of the brutal robbery and murder of a man outside of a convenience store in Cleveland, Ohio. The prosecutionÆs case, which resulted in a combined 106 years in prison for the three men, rested on the more-than-questionable testimony of a pre-teen, Ed Vernon. The actual murderer was never found. Almost four decades later, Vernon recanted his testimony, and Wiley, Kwame, and Rickey were released. But while their exoneration may have ended one of American historyÆs most disgraceful miscarriages of justice, the corruption and decay of the city responsible for their imprisonment remain on trial. Interweaving the dramatic details of the case with ClevelandÆs historyùone that, to this day, is fraught with systemic discrimination and racial tensionùSwenson reveals how this outrage occurred and why. Good Kids, Bad City is a work of astonishing empathy and insight: an immersive exploration of race in America, the struggling Midwest, and how lost lives can be recovered.

• | Author: Kyle Swenson
• | Publisher: Picador
• | Publication Date: Mar 17, 2020
• | Number of Pages: 304 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback/Social Science
• | ISBN-10: 125012025X
• | ISBN-13: 9781250120250