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Catch the Devil

 James Dailey had a rough time in Vietnam, came home, watched his life unravel. He was like the speaker in Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA." Struggling with addiction, he lost his family. He began hanging out with unsavory characters.


One of those characters--Pearcy--took a 14-year-old girl out for a drive. He tried to rape her, but he was impotent. In a moment of confusion, he believed that the kid was starting to laugh at him. In a frenzy, he stabbed her over thirty times and left her corpse in a puddle.

To confuse the police, Pearcy claimed that he was with James Dailey on "the night in question." This was false. But the story gained momentum. The DA recruited a group of jailhouse snitches. Various secret promises were authored. Testify against Dailey, and we'll offer perks.

Dailey has thus spent decades in jail. At one point, Ron DeSantis declared his intention to execute Dailey. The murderer himself declared that Dailey was innocent. All but one of the jailhouse snitches confessed that they had been bribed to tell a lie. (One snitch--a man named Paul Skalnik--never recanted before dying. He had built a career on theft and snitching.)

The journalist Pamela Colloff describes the anger she feels toward Paul Skalnik. But she also indicates that "the system" is particularly appalling. Many lawyers, judges, and politicians have looked away while James Dailey has suffered for having done nothing wrong.

Amazing story. The book is called "Catch the Devil."
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