Book Review: Exonerated - A Brief and Dangerous Freedom

After being wrongfully convicted of murder and serving 29 years in prison, James Woodward was freed in 2008 after DNA testing obtained by the Innocence Project of Texas (IPOT) excluded him as the perpetrator. Woodward was the longest-serving inmate in the United States to be freed by DNA evidence. This is not a story of his legal fight for freedom, but more about surviving freedom. Specifically, this is a love story, written as a memoir by the author, Joyce King, James’ girlfriend for the four years that followed his exoneration. From the beginning, we know he dies. Though Ms. King wants to honor James’ spirit and his fight for normalcy and happiness, the story unfolds into a character study of two opposing worlds and how long-term incarceration destroys people.