Innocence Project of Texas
Blue Willow Bookshop is excited to partner with The Innocence Project of Texas for their inaugural book club meeting on Thursday, August 27, 2020 at 7 p.m. They will be hosting a virtual visit with the author Jim McCloskey focusing on his new book When the Truth is All You Have. Blue Willow will be donating 10% of our sales of his book to The Innocence Project of Texas.
The Innocence Project of Texas was founded in 2006 by two criminal defense attorneys: Jeff Blackburn of Amarillo and Mike Ware of Fort Worth. It is a nonprofit human service organization that provides legal and investigation assistance to low-income Texas citizens who were convicted of crimes they did not commit. They also advocate for the adoption of laws to improve (reform) the criminal justice system and prevent wrongful convictions.
Jim McCloskey is the founder of Centurion Ministries. He served in the U.S. Navy, patrolling rivers in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, and spent twelve years in international consulting. He has a Masters of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. Today McCloskey is retired from active oversight of Centurion, though he continues to serve on the board and pursue cases.
Philip Lerman has been the national editor of USA Today, co-producer of "America's Most Wanted," and executive producer of PBS's "Made in Spain." He is the author of Dadditude and co-author of numerous nonfiction books.
Please note that this book will be priority shipped to give you chance to read it before the meeting!
"Jim McCloskey and Centurion are pioneers in the struggle to expose the tragedy of innocent people wrongly convicted and sent to prison in America...No one has illuminated this problem more thoughtfully and persistently." —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy
"Jim McCloskey is one of the giants of the worldwide movement to free innocent people from prison. In fact the organization founded by McCloskey, Centurion Ministries, was the first organization in the world devoted to the mission of freeing innocent people from prison. “When Truth Is All You Have” is the story of how McCloskey, while a student at Princeton School of Theology, became involved in the effort to free an innocent man from prison in New Jersey and how that experience led to him founding Centurion Ministries and spending his life involved in this work.
McCloskey’s book explains the work he and his team did on several of their cases, including several Texas cases. Among the Texas cases discussed in the book are Richard Miles and Joyce Ann Brown from Dallas County and Clarence Brandley from Montgomery County.
On a personal level I have had the opportunity to work with Jim McCloskey on several Texas cases and I can attest to the fact that he is a remarkable man who has done remarkable work in this area. “When Truth Is All You Have” is an excellent book and I urge everybody with an interest in the work to free innocent people from prison to read it." - Gary A. Udashen, IPTX board member