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Nineteen-year-old Jovan Mosley, a good kid from one of Chicago’s very bad neighborhoods, was coerced into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit. Charged with murder, he spent five years and eight months in a prison for violent criminals. Without a trial.
Jovan grew up on the rough streets of Chicago’s Southeast Side. With one brother dead of HIV complications, another in jail for arson and murder, and most kids his age in gangs, Jovan struggled to be different. Until his arrest, he was. He excelled in school, dreamed of being a lawyer, and had been accepted to Ohio State.
Then on August 6, 1999, Jovan witnessed a fight that would result in a man’s death. Six months later, he was arrested, cruelly questioned, and forced into a confession. Sent to a holding jail for violent criminals, he tried ceaselessly to get a trial so he could argue his case. He studied what casework he could, rigorously questioning his public defenders. But time after time his case was shoved aside. Amiable, bright, and peaceable, he struggled to stay alive in prison. As the years ground on, he’d begun to lose hope when, by chance, he met Catharine O’Daniel, a successful criminal defense lawyer. Although nearly all cases with a signed confession result in a conviction, she was so moved by him, and so convinced of his innocence, that Cathy accepted Jovan as her first pro bono client. Cathy asked Laura Caldwell to join her and together they battled for Jovan’s exoneration. Here is Laura’s firsthand account of their remarkable journey.
This is a harrowing true story about justice, friendship, failure, and success. A breakdown of the justice system sent a nice kid to one of the nation’s nastiest jails for nearly six years without a trial. It would take a triumph of human kindness, ingenuity, and legal jousting to give Jovan even a fighting chance.
Deeply affecting, Long Way Home is a remarkable story of how change can happen even in a flawed system and of how friendship can emanate from the most unexpected places.
“So you think you would never confess to a murder you did not commit, that no innocent person would? Long Way Home will make you think again. Laura Caldwell’s riveting tale about Jovan Mosley’s false confession to a crime he had nothing to do with reads like a thriller, but it’s absolutely and frightfully true. This book will rattle your foundations.” —David R. Dow, University of Houston law professor and author of The Autobiography of an Execution
"Part courtroom drama, part Eat, Pray, Love—style memoir, part social-injustice expose. The story of a powerful friendship."—Chicago Magazine
Anonymous
Posted May 13, 2013
Not one stat maybe -50000000000000000 stars
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Posted May 11, 2012
WORST BOOK EVER
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.AvidReader36
Posted October 19, 2010
Read this if you want to learn how lawyers help the guilty go free. This book is a shameful distortion of the truth. Save your money and read the appeals court decision on this one. I hate when the police abuse their authority but that is not the case here. I am truly sorry for Mosley's victim in this one. He was the one driven home by these guys. He had the the hard way home. Right title but wrong focus.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 26, 2011
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Overview
Nineteen-year-old Jovan Mosley, a good kid from one of Chicago’s very bad neighborhoods, was coerced into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit. Charged with murder, he spent five years and eight months in a prison for violent criminals. Without a trial.
Jovan grew up on the rough streets of Chicago’s Southeast Side. With one brother dead of HIV complications, another in jail for arson and murder, and most kids his age in gangs, Jovan struggled to be different. Until his ...