Wednesday, May 7, 2008

This Is A Man: The Heroic Intransigence of James L. Woodard (William Grigg)

William Grigg on the heroic, wrongly convicted James L. Woodard and the culpability of the evil attorney who knew the truth of his innocence, but let him languish behind bars for 27 years:

"I don't know your `philosophy' of life, but I assume you wouldn't take a man's freedom just because you can. That's why I keep sending these letters to you.... I've been locked up 3 1/2 years now and it's been really `frustrating,' but I won't allow anything to prevent me from obtaining what God gave me at birth and what is rightfully mine, my freedom."

From a letter written by James Lee Woodard on June 24, 1984 to Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade

James Woodard was unduly optimistic in his assessment of what passed for Henry Wade's character. As it happened, Wade was precisely the kind of person who would take a man's freedom from him simply because he could. He did so with great frequency, remarkable efficiency, and the chilling composure of a sociopath. In this respect Wade could be considered a prototype of the modern prosecuting attorney.

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