If you are a true crime fan following the Alex Murdaugh crime saga in South Carolina, then you have likely read the well-researched, well-written works by professional journalists and historians covering the case.
Your bookshelf probably contains “The Devil at His Elbow” by The Wall Street Journal reporter Valerie Bauerlein, “Swamp Kings” by Jason Ryan, “The Fall of the House of Murdaugh“ by this author, and many more, and you may think you know everything there is to know about all things Murdaugh.
But if you only read one more Murdaugh trial book, this should be the one — “The Long Road to Justice: Unraveling Alex Murdaugh’s Tangled Web,” by Amie Williams with Shana Hirsh.
Williams, once known publicly only as Juror 864, served on the jury that in March of 2023 convicted Murdaugh for murdering his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, in June of 2021, and you don’t have to be a literary critic to know that there is no voice or perspective in a story more powerful, revealing and connected than a voice from inside the story itself.
But this latest literary effort is more than an insider’s view of one high-profile, internationally publicized murder trial. “The Long Road to Justice“ (Palmetto Publishing, November 2024) truly takes us inside the American criminal justice system to see both the ugly warts and the beauty marks of “Lady Justice.”
“A lot of people have never served on jury duty, and this book gives you a first-hand account, from beginning to end, but with a twist,” Williams said. “One reviewer said that it made them feel like they were experiencing this trial with us for six weeks and seeing the horrors that happened.”
And this 268-page, tell-all memoir does more than tell the story of the Murdaugh crime saga. The work examines the role of the juror in our legal history, our modern justice system, and our pop culture.
“This book illustrates the justice system at work and proves that it does work,” Hirsch said. “This is the story of how 12 people took down a legal dynasty.
“Inside this book is the ‘soup-to-nuts’ of being a juror,” added Hirsch. “We really tried to make the book accessible to people who followed the case and people who didn’t.”
“You don’t have to be Murdaugh obsessed to enjoy this book,” add the authors.
“The Long Road to Justice” takes the reader from jury selection, in-court testimony, and the reading of the guilty verdicts, to Williams flying to New York to speak on the Today show, and then well after the verdict was read, as Murdaugh pleaded and was sentenced for financial crimes but has since filed an appeal of his murder conviction with the S.C. Supreme Court amid looming jury tampering allegations.
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