Guilty By Popular Demand: A True Story of Small-Town Injustice

The townsfolk of Logan, Ohio, a mined-out area of the Appalachian foot-hills, cheered as an innocent man was convicted and sent to death row. The occasion was the conviction of Dale N. Johnston. His trial ended nothing; the tragedies had just begun.

What really happened on that bitter cold day in January 1984 was the total collapse of the local criminal justice system. It began with a lovers' quarrel. On October 4, 1982, Johnston's stepdaughter Annette Cooper Johnston-an 18-year-old beauty c...