Freeing David McCallum

Before Rubin "Hurricane" Carter died after a long battle with cancer, he and his friend and coauthor Ken Klonsky had been working for ten years to help free another wrongfully convicted man, David McCallum. Carter died in April 2014 and McCallum was exonerated and freed two months later, after serving twenty-nine years in prison. This is the story of how Carter and Klonsky, along with a group of committed friends and professionals managed to secure McCallum's release. It details their struggles from founding an innocence project to take on the case, to finding lawyers willing to work pro bono, to hiring a private detective to sift through old evidence and locate original witnesses, and the most difficult part, convincing members of a deeply flawed criminal justice system to reopen a case that would expose their own mistakes when all they wanted to do was ignore the conflicting evidence. Meanwhile, McCallum's friends supported him emotionally and convinced him to remain patient and hopeful while helping him prepare for life outside of prison. Finally it took a new district attorney willing to reexamine the case, a documentary film, Fight for Justice, David & Me (Markham Street Films) directed by Marc Lamy and Ray Klonsky, Ken's son, who became one of David's closest friends and ardent supporters, and an op-ed piece written by Carter on his death bed published in the New York Daily News that made a plea for McCallum's release and turned the tide of justice. Freeing David McCallum tells a tale of frustration, agony, and undying hope, and the miracle that resulted in David's release.