Bringing Ben Home
A Murder, a Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice
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Narrated by:
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Barbara Bradley Hagerty
About this listen
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.
Eventually 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.
As Spencer’s fight to clear himself demonstrates, our legal systems are broken: expedience is more important than the truth. That is starting to change as states across the country implement new efforts to reduce wrongful convictions, and one of the states leading the way is Texas.
Award-winning journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty has spent years digging into this issue, and she has immersed herself in Spencer’s case. She has combed police files and court records, interviewed dozens of witnesses, and had extensive conversations with Spencer, and in Bringing Ben Home she threads together two narratives: how an innocent Black man got caught up in and couldn’t escape a legal system that refused to admit its mistakes; and what Texas and other states are doing to address wrongful convictions to make the legal process more equitable for everyone.
By turns fascinating and enraging, personal and provocative, Bringing Ben Home is the powerful story of one innocent man who refused to admit that he was guilty of murder, and how his plight became part of a paradigm shift in how the legal system thinks about innocence as it institutes new methods to overturn wrongful convictions to better protect people like Ben Spencer.©2024 Barbara Bradley Hagerty (P)2024 Penguin Audio
Critic reviews
“Ben Spencer’s story is beautifully told by a gifted and determined journalist: There is great suffering, injustice, corruption, waste, and, in the end, redemption. Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s vivid account of his nightmare is simply unforgettable.”—John Grisham, author of The Exchange
“A spellbinding story of resilience and faith. It’s a fascinating account of a broken justice system and what people are doing to help mend it.”—James Martin, S.J., author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage
“Bringing Ben Home achieves a rare feat: simultaneously infuriating, fascinating, and inspiring. The author’s personal commitment to her subject and his family filled me with awe. This is a luminous book.”—Allison Leotta, author of The Last Good Girl
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On May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, political fires that had been burning across America during the 1960s exploded. Antiwar protesters wearing bell-bottom jeans hurled taunts and rocks at another group of young Americans—National Guardsmen sporting gas masks and rifles. At half past noon, violence unfolded with chaotic speed, as guardsmen—many of whom had joined the Guard to escape the draft—opened fire on the students. Kent State meticulously re-creates the divided cultural landscape of America during the Vietnam War and popular anxieties around the country.
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Disappointed
- By Elwood Sulzer on 09-21-24
By: Brian VanDeMark
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Drawn Testimony
- My Four Decades as a Courtroom Sketch Artist
- By: Jane Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In Drawn Testimony, Rosenberg brings us into the high-stakes, dramatic world of her craft, where art, psychology and courtroom drama collide. Over the course of her legendary career, Jane has had a front row seat to some of the most iconic and notorious moments in our nation's recent history, sketching everything from Tom Brady's deflate-gate case, to John Lennon's murder trial to cases against Ghislaine Maxwell, John Gotti, Harvey Weinstein and most recently, the indictment against former President Donald Trump.
By: Jane Rosenberg
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The Boys of Riverside
- A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory
- By: Thomas Fuller
- Narrated by: Thomas Fuller
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in New York Times reporter, Thomas Fuller’s, inbox. The football team at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, a state-run school with only 168 high school students, was having an undefeated season. After years of covering wildfires, war, pandemic, and mass shootings, Fuller was captivated by the story about this deaf football team. It was uplifting. During the pandemic’s gloom, it was a happy story. It was a sports story but not an ordinary one.
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Fascinating and Uplifting
- By Kevin A. Howard on 10-14-24
By: Thomas Fuller
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Carrie Carolyn Coco
- My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession with the Unthinkable
- By: Sarah Gerard
- Narrated by: Sarah Gerard
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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On the night of September 28, 2016, twenty-five-year-old Carolyn Bush was brutally stabbed to death in her New York City apartment by her roommate Render Stetson-Shanahan, leaving friends and family of both reeling. In life, Carolyn was a gregarious, smart-mouthed aspiring poet, who had seemingly gotten along well with Render, a reserved art handler. Where had it gone so terribly wrong?
By: Sarah Gerard
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Group Living
- And Other Recipes
- By: Lola Milholland
- Narrated by: Lola Milholland
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Lola Milholland grew up in the nineties, the child of iconoclastic hippies. Her mom had spent her life revolting against the strictures of her American and Filipino upbringing. Her dad, a child of the eastern Oregon desert, was a jovial documentary filmmaker and historian who loved to collect ephemera. Both threw open the doors of the Holman House, their rambling home in Portland, Oregon, to long-term visitors and unusual guests in need of a place to stay. Years later, after college and after her parents’ separation, Milholland returned home.
By: Lola Milholland
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American Diva
- Extraordinary, Unruly, Fabulous
- By: Deborah Paredez
- Narrated by: Deborah Paredez
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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What does it mean to be a "diva"? A shifting, increasingly loaded term, it has been used to both deride and celebrate charismatic and unapologetically fierce performers like Aretha Franklin, Divine, and the women of Labelle. In this brilliant, powerful blend of incisive criticism and electric memoir, Deborah Paredez-scholar, cultural critic, and lifelong diva devotee-unravels our enduring fascination with these icons and explores how divas have challenged American ideas about feminism, performance, and freedom.
By: Deborah Paredez
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The Mueller Report
- The Leaked Investigation into President Donald Trump and His Inner Circle of Con Men, Circus Clowns, and Children He Named After Himself
- By: Jason O. Gilbert
- Narrated by: Michael Ian Black, James Adomian, Laura Benanti
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The Mueller Report is 2018’s most anticipated release that doesn’t involve Chris Pratt punching a dinosaur, and for good reason: The entire country is waiting to see what former FBI director and current special counsel Robert Mueller has dug up on former mail-order steak salesman and current US president Donald J. Trump. That wait is over - sort of - with the publication of The Mueller Report by Jason O. Gilbert.
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This is not the report
- By James Maxwell on 04-21-19
By: Jason O. Gilbert
What listeners say about Bringing Ben Home
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 11-14-24
Profoundly well written, incredible and timely story
Our justice system has been anything but for much of the history of this nation. It is a racist, caste driven system that assumes guilt before innocence unless you’re wealthy and white. The story of Ben Spencer is a story that could describe thousands of American prisoners. This is a story that needs to be heard all over this country. The author did a masterful job of keeping the listener/reader enthralled with the story while not skimping on any of the facts and history of this case and the overall innocence movement. Her experience reporting for NPR was clearly evident in how thorough this book was. Overall, this was one of the best books I’ve read or listened to in years.
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- Dee
- 08-25-24
Outstanding
Outstanding investigation which will lead to a phenomenal documentary of series. Perfectly written and this looks ready!!
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- Amy
- 08-25-24
Couldn’t stop listening!!
Inspiring, heart wrenching…. A thorough excavation of the criminal justice system interwoven with the riveting story of a wrongfully incarcerated man. This book has been life changing. I have been educated. I am so grateful to the author for how she has shined the light of truth into the darkest recesses of the courts and police stations. I am hopeful this book will serve as a catalyst for the continued evolution of our justice system…. So that it can actually be just.
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- Elizabeth H May
- 08-09-24
Compelling story & great narration
I listened to the author on NPR for years. When I heard that she wrote a book about a wrongful conviction, I downloaded it immediately. Great listen!
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- ConsciousConsumer
- 11-04-24
Expertly Written and Read; Couldn't Stop Listening
If you (like me) need a personal story to help you understand the big picture problems in our criminal justice system, make it this one.
Bradley Hagerty is an expert at weaving together the human elements of Ben's story with the statistics and research that illuminate our national justice crisis.
The storytelling and facts of the case brought back memories of the hit podcast, Serial (season one), but this was much easier to follow.
You wont regret using your credits on this one.
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