6.1 Brief Against Death: The Murder of Victoria Zielinski

In 1957, Edgar Smith was sentenced to death for the murder of a teenage girl in New Jersey. From his prison cell, he began writing letters, essays, arguments to build a case not in court, but on the page. One of those letters landed on the desk of William F. Buckley Jr., one of the nation's most powerful conservative voices. Others found their way into elite literary circles. Soon, a condemned man had powerful allies, a book deal, and a growing audience convinced the system had gotten it wrong.

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