Attorney and novelist Tim Junkin will speak in Bannan 142 at noon on Wednesday, October 27, and he will be in the Bannan Lounge at 1 p.m. to sign copies of his new book, Bloodsworth .
In March 1985, Kirk Bloodsworth was wrongfully convicted for the brutal killing and sexual assault of a nine-year-old girl. After serving eight years in prison, two of those on death row, Bloodsworth was released in June 1993, following DNA tests that excluded him from the crime. Tim Junkin’s new book describes Bloodsworth’s experience and raises provocative questions about the U.S. legal system and the death penalty. Junkin will discuss Bloodsworth’s story, the importance of DNA testing, and the capital punishment system.
Kirk Bloodsworth’s case became the first capital conviction in the United States to be overturned as a result of DNA testing. Bloodsworth, of Cambridge, Maryland, served more than eight years in prison, including two on death row, for the rape and murder of nine-year-old Dawn Hamilton. After years of fighting for a DNA test, evidence from the crime scene was tested and excluded Bloodsworth from the crime. Today, Bloodsworth is a crabber on the Maryland shore and owns his own workboat. He is an advisor for the Campaign for Criminal Justice Reform of The Justice Project and the Criminal Justice Reform Education Fund. Bloodsworth has been an ardent supporter of the Innocence Protection Act (IPA) since its introduction in Congress in February 2000. The IPA of 2003 would establish the "Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program," a program that will help states defray the costs of post-conviction DNA testing.
Tim Junkin is the author of two novels, Good Counsel (2000) and The Waterman (1999). Junkin’s essays and reviews have been published in the Baltimore Sun, Washingtonian magazine, and Chesapeake Life magazine. In 2000, he received the Maryland State Arts Council’s Individual Artist Award in Fiction. He graduated from the University of Maryland with honors and from Georgetown University Law School. In 1977, he began his legal career as a public defender. He defended in several notable murder trials before becoming a national trial lawyer in private practice. He has taught at the Writers Center, Georgetown University, Harvard Law School, and American University, where he received its Adjunct Professor of the Year Award.
In a Washingtonian Book Club discussion on September 21, 2004, Junkin said, “Kirk is spending much of his time speaking across the country, and lobbying for the passage of The Innocence Protection Act, and other bills that would improve the criminal justice system. Of course the time he spent in prison inalterably changed him. It’s a miracle though, that this victim of such injustice, has become such a strong voice for justice in this country.”
