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The Trials of Eroy Brown: The Murder Case That Shook the Texas Prison System (Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture Book 31) Kindle Edition

by Michael Berryhill (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 30 ratings
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“Berryhill’s account of this infamous 30-year-old murder case . . . Provides a jarring portrait of a once-medieval state prison.” —Publishers Weekly
 
In April 1981, two white Texas prison officials died at the hands of a black inmate at the Ellis prison farm near Huntsville. Warden Wallace Pack and farm manager Billy Moore were the highest-ranking Texas prison officials ever to die in the line of duty. The warden was drowned face down in a ditch. The farm manager was shot once in the head with the warden’s gun. The man who admitted to killing them, a burglar and robber named Eroy Brown, surrendered meekly, claiming self-defense.
 
In any other era of Texas prison history, Brown’s fate would have seemed certain: execution. But in 1980, federal judge William Wayne Justice had issued a sweeping civil rights ruling in which he found that prison officials had systematically and often brutally violated the rights of Texas inmates. In the light of that landmark prison civil rights case, Ruiz v. Estelle, Brown had a chance of being believed.
 
The Trials of Eroy Brown, the first book devoted to Brown’s astonishing defense, is based on trial documents, exhibits, and journalistic accounts of Brown’s three trials, which ended in his acquittal. Michael Berryhill presents Brown’s story in his own words, set against the backdrop of the chilling plantation mentality of Texas prisons. Brown’s attorneys—Craig Washington, Bill Habern, and Tim Sloan—undertook heroic strategies to defend him, even when the state refused to pay their fees. The Trials of Eroy Brown tells a landmark story of prison civil rights and the collapse of Jim Crow justice in Texas.
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  1. ISBN-13
    978-0292744066
  2. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  3. Publisher
    University of Texas Press
  4. Publication date
    October 15, 2011
  5. Part of series
    Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture
  6. Language
    English
  7. File size
    2628 KB
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Well documented and unsentimental, Berryhill's account of this infamous 30-year-old murder case that pitted one man's innocent plea against Texas's political might provides a jarring portrait of a once-medieval state prison.

― Publishers Weekly Published On: 2011-07-04

Michael Berryhill tells Brown's side of the story with care and skill...the story contributes to the growing literature on Texas prisons and prison histories, and it resonates beyond this topic.

-- Norwood Andrews, University of Texas-Pan American ― The Journal of Southern History Published On: 2013-05-01

Review

Michael Berryhill is a very gifted storyteller, and this is a very powerful story.

-- Gary M. Lavergne, author of Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B007JEZ0JG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Texas Press (October 15, 2011)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 15, 2011
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2628 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 248 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 30 ratings

About the author

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Michael Berryhill

Michael Berryhill

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In The Trials of Eroy Brown: The Murder Case That Shook the Texas Prison System, Michael Berryhill tells a landmark story of prison civil rights and the collapse of Jim Crow justice in Texas. In April 1981, two white Texas prison officials died at the hands of a black inmate at the Ellis prison farm near Huntsville. The warden was drowned face down in a ditch. The farm manager was shot once in the head with the warden's gun. The man who admitted to killing them, a burglar and robber named Eroy Brown, surrendered meekly, claiming self-defense. In any other era of Texas prison history, Brown's fate would have seemed certain: execution. But in 1980, federal judge William Wayne Justice had issued a sweeping civil rights ruling in which he found that prison officials had systematically and often brutally violated the rights of Texas inmates. In the light of that landmark case, Brown had a chance of being believed. The Trials of Eroy Brown, the first book devoted to Brown's astonishing defense, is based on trial documents, exhibits, and journalistic accounts of Brown's three trials, which ended in his acquittal. Michael Berryhill presents Brown's story in his own words, set against the backdrop of the chilling plantation mentality of Texas prisons. Recipient of the Texas Institute of Letters prize for nonfiction, Michael Berryhill has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times magazine, Harper's, The New Republic, and the Houston Chronicle. He chairs the journalism program at Texas Southern University.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
30 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

zendawg
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book About Great Lawyer and Landmark Case
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2011
Verified Purchase
Eroy Brown should have been a dead man after killing in self defense a prison warden and a top prison manager. Brown was black, with a long criminal history, when Texas was in some ways more conservative and redneck than it is now (it's still as conservative but not as blatantly redneck). Craig Washington, a young black lawyer/state legislator, led the defense in Brown's capital murder trials and proved Brown acted in self defense. The book shows how hellish Texas prisons were, and how corrupt some of the officials were, e.g., stealing tires and other equipment. They treated the black inmates like slaves, and when they got uppity, would take them to the "bottoms," the river bottoms or other isolated areas where they could beat them or even kill them. The book is well written, moves fast, and is as compelling as a first rate fictional legal or suspense thriller. I read a lot of true crime books and this one is in my top five. I'm not doing justice to it with this review. Just buy it and read it for yourself!
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E Jean Boone
5.0 out of 5 stars No Justice No Peace!
Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2014
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Eroy Brown is a political prisoner now!!! Yes, he committed a crime but you have to ask why was his sentence so "enhanced" & the other two accomplices rec'vd such light sentences. A case like OJ; if the state couldn't get him for his original trials where he was acquitted of murdering TDC Warden Pack & Billy Moore, then they would make Eroy pay where they could which was the enhancement of his last crime as habitual criminal !!!

Native Wacoan
Jean B
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars I received a product in good condition as agreed.
Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2023
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The product was of better quality than expected and it was delivered according to the online updates.
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Judy
5.0 out of 5 stars Elroy Brown
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2012
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The book is very good and informative. The service I received from the vendor was prompt and not problems. The book is well written and detailed. I live in Huntsville but only heard a small portion about what happened on the Ellis Unit so this book has helped to better understand and get a better picture of what happened.
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Chesun So
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2015
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outstanding documentary book
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Richard Clark
5.0 out of 5 stars Review of "The Trials of Eroy Brown" by Michael Berryhill
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2011
If one is looking for a book on the non-fiction list that reads like a novel, or more accurately like the very best of the genre of which "In Cold Blood" first comes to mind, the recent publication of "The Trials of Eroy Brown" (byline: The Murder Case that Shook the Texas Prison System) by Michael Berryhill is a terrific buy. I could not put it down - it was captivating. Berryhill, currently chair of Journalism at Texas Southern University, weaves this story in a way that was as much a scathing (but balanced) report on the Texas prison and criminal justice system, as a heart rending tale of a black kid essentially orphaned and programmed as a child from circumstance to a life of crime and prison instead of social services. Born to unwed teenagers who both wound up in prison, his mother for murder, he was orphaned to his great grandmother. Essentially on his own, he committed a long string of petty crime (to which he always confessed) that landed him in prison repeatedly. At the age of 26 he was placed in the notoriously brutal Ellis Unit outside Huntsville for the most hardened and incorrigible criminals.

Berryhill starts the story in dramatic fashion by piecing together the events of that fatal day that led to Eroy Brown's allegedly cold-blooded killing of Wallace Pack, the Ellis prison warden, and the farm manager Billy Max Moore. Following this, Berryhill, through a series of vignettes, brilliantly researched, paints the backdrop of the Texas prison system as it stood in 1981, focusing on key personalities, in particular Jim Estelle, the director of the Texas Department of Corrections. Paradoxically Estelle was acutely aware of the depraved conditions of the prisons and an advocate initially of reform, but was ultimately forced to defend the TDC in the famous civil rights case Ruiz vs Estelle presided over by federal judge William Wayne Justice. Estelle's own words concerning the necessity of progressive reforms was key in Justice's opinion against him, not that the horrific testimonies of torture, beatings, and general mayhem of the Texas prisons wasn't enough of an indictment.

Setting the tone for the first of what was ultimately three trials, we learn how the three man defense team was formed by a liberal criminal defense lawyer Bill Habern who was able to enlist both a forensics expert, Timothy Sloan, and most importantly Craig Washington whose charm, commanding presence, and brilliance both as a lawyer and state legislator (ultimately a two term representative to Congress) made him famous to progressives - infamous to the TDC.

With the background and suspense so wonderfully set Berryhill takes us into the courtroom action - the succession of trials that is so perfectly told with Berry hill's editing, that it takes little imagination to see this as a movie. Simply put Washington's cross examinations were brilliant. At this point we see that the team's winning strategy was self defense. Remarkably and perfectly timed we finally get what likely really happened that day in April, 1981 from the testimony of the star witness, Eroy Brown. It is so well crafted that one feels like a member of the jury, and not just for the first trial of Warden Pack's alleged murder, but the retrial, and finally the third trial for Billy Moore's death. The ultimate truth about what happened that day will never be known, but this book takes us as close to that truth as we may ever get.
3 people found this helpful
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A. R. Jones
4.0 out of 5 stars Missing the most important interview
Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2016
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Although I enjoyed the read it is a rehashing of The Walls Came Tumbling Down. I would have given the book five stars if it would have included or had the cooperation of Brown' attorney Craig Washington. I like that true book has an index, used mostly primary sources included verbatim court testimony which legitimized the story.
2 people found this helpful
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