Out of the Darkness: A Story of Injustice and Redemption

A discussion between Barbara Bradley Hagerty, author of "Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, A Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice," and Ben Spencer, a man who fought tirelessly to maintain his innocence through a wrongful conviction until he was free.

The Weidenbaum Center is thrilled to co-sponsor a conversation with author and journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty and Ben Spencer, moderated by Professor John Inazu, about the book Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, A Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice. The event is cosponsored with the Legal Vocation Fellowship and the WashU School of Law's Public Interest Law & Policy Speaker Series

In 1987, Ben Spencer, a twenty-two-year-old Black man from Dallas, was convicted of murdering white businessman Jeffrey Young—a crime he didn’t commit. From the day of his arrest, Spencer insisted that it was “an awful mistake.” The Texas legal system didn’t see it that way. It allowed shoddy police work, paid witnesses, and prosecutorial misconduct to convict Spencer of murder, and it ignored later efforts to correct this error.

The state’s bureaucratic intransigence caused Spencer to spend more than half his life in prison. 34 years later, independent investigators, new witness testimony, the foreman of the jury that convicted him, and a new Dallas DA convinced a Texas judge that Spencer had nothing to do with the killing, and in 2021 he was released from prison.

This event is open to all. No RSVP is required.

Parking Information
Please park only in "Visitor" designated spaces in Snow Way Garage or Millbrook Garage. We will have parking validations available upon request.