WHEN TRUTH IS ALL YOU HAVE

A heartfelt and heart-rending story of fighting wrongful convictions, which “are on no one’s list of our most important problems.”

McCloskey is the founder of Centurion Ministries, an organization that, since 1983, has managed to free 63 people convicted of crimes they did not commit. Before starting this noble work, the author was an often aimless Vietnam veteran searching for a purpose in life. In this worthwhile reflection, co-written by former USA Today national editor Lerman, McCloskey not only recounts the successes and failures of Centurion; he also looks back candidly on his own journey. The author begins with his days at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he took an assignment as a student chaplain in a local prison. There, he had a life-changing encounter with a prisoner named Jorge “Chiefie” de los Santos. The author believed that Chiefie was innocent of the crime of murder for which he had been convicted, and Chiefie’s case led him to his life’s calling: to fight for the wrongfully convicted. Examining his work and life, he shares a dual narrative: “the story of how I learned what a cruel, mindless, mean machine the justice system can be,” and “how I learned to look that evil in the eye and still understand there is good in the world.” All of this makes for eye-opening, sometimes inspiring reading, and McCloskey also weaves in his own personal tale of redemption—of toxic love affairs, trysts with prostitutes, and other hedonistic endeavors that eventually led him to seek out a better path. The author’s writing is conversational, forthright, and brusque, and his subject matter is humane, uncomfortable, and often raw. The narrative charts triumphant stories of innocent persons freed, heartbreaking tales of defeat, and disappointing insights into a broken justice system. John Grisham provides the forward.

Compassionate tales from a dedicated warrior for justice.