Jed Horne

There are all kinds of stories about the innocent railroaded into jails, or onto death row, by corrupt or indifferent or racist cops, judges, juries, prosecutors, public defenders...there are so many, who needs another? Especially one set in New Orleans, and twenty-six years after the crime at that?

Jed Horne tells us a story that will curdle your blood as much as Zeitoun did, and it's just as true. A purse-snatching gone bad, a dead white church lady, a young rakehell who's no angel...*wham* went the jail doors on young Mr. Kyles, *swish* went DA Harry Connick Senior's bid for re-election, and no one cared a whit.

Except Kyles's baby-mama Pinkey. She had five kids with him, she knew him (Biblically speaking as well as socially, obviously), and she had no time for hearing that he could kill someone.

It took over 10 years, but the Supreme Court voided Kyles's conviction on factual grounds. But now what? The whole CITY was convinced that he did it. How do you fight that?

Read Desire Street and find out. It's a scream-at-the-walls infuriating read, but in the end...well, in the end, I was hoarse but I was satisfied justice had been served. Recommended.… (meer)

A compelling account written shortly after Katrina, detailing the New Orleans catastrophe. Includes personal accounts of damage and survival, theories on levee breaches, and infuriating accounts of failed leadership. The Coast Guard (also affirmed in other accounts) and individual acts of rescue and recovery are the only admirable post-Katrina characters in Horne's book. La. Governor Kathleen Blanco is also exonerated as the details of her actual pre- and post-Katrina actions are reviwed and the Republican vilification of her, and Louisiana, are revealed.… (meer)