---
title: 'BOOKS: "A Murder Case Gone Wrong"'
description: 'Raymond Bonner’s new book, Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong, is about to be published and was noted earlier by DPIC. An excerpt from the…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/books-a-murder-case-gone-wrong'
section: news
date: '2012-02-10T20:01:34-05:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:31:40-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

! Raymond Bonner's new book, ***Anatomy of Injustice***: **A Murder Case Gone Wrong**, is about to be published and was [noted earlier by DPIC](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/books-anatomy-of-injustice-a-murder-case-gone-wrong). An excerpt from the book appeared recently in *The Atlantic*. Andrew Cohen, also writing in *The Atlantic*, called it "the book of the century about the death penalty." Cohen commented that “Bonner's book comes at a crucial time in the modern history of the death penalty. It comes at a time when views are slowly hardening against the current unreliable and expensive system. It comes at a time when several states are looking to eliminate their capital regimes. It comes at a time when even the conservative Supreme Court has sent a signal that capital cases must be handled better. It's a book that surely comes too late for some death row inmates but perhaps just in time for others.” In *Anatomy for Injustice*, Bonner recounts the case of **Edward Lee Elmore**, a man with intellectual disabilities, who has been tried, convicted and sentenced to death three times for a murder, and was recently granted a fourth trial when the reviewing court acknowledged “grave questions about whether it really was Elmore who murdered \[the victim\].” ***[Read the excerpt from ](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/the-last-line-of-defense/308875/)*****[Anatomy for Injustice](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/the-last-line-of-defense/308875/)**.

In the excerpt from his book, Bonner wrote, “In our criminal-justice system, once a person has been convicted, no matter how shaky the conviction, the presumption of innocence disappears. The defendant is assumed to have had a fair trial. New evidence, even enough to sow a field of doubt, does not necessarily entitle a defendant, not even one on death row, to a new trial.”

(A. Cohen, "[The Book of the Century About the Death Penalty](https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/the-book-of-the-century-about-the-death-penalty/250755/)," The Atlantic, February 9, 2012; R. Bonner, "Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong," Alfred A. Knopf, February 2012)). See **[Innocence](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/policy/innocence)** and **[Intellectual Disability](/intellectual-disability-and-death-penalty?scid=28&did=176)**. Read more **[Books](/books-death-penalty?did=130&scid=20)** on the death penalty.