Long Way Home: A Young Man Lost in the System and the Two Women Who Found Him

Nineteen-year-old Jovan Mosley a good kid from one of Chicago’s very bad neighborhoods was coerced into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit. Charged with murder he spent five years and eight months in a prison for violent criminals. Without a trial.Jovan grew up on the rough streets of Chicago’s Southeast Side. With one brother dead of HIV complications another in jail for arson and murder and most kids his age in gangs Jovan struggled to be different. Until his arrest he was. He excelled in school dreamed of being a lawyer and had been accepted to Ohio State. . Then on August 6 1999 Jovan witnessed a fight that would result in a man’s death. Six months later he was arrested cruelly questioned and forced into a confession. Sent to a holding jail for violent criminals he tried ceaselessly to get a trial so he could argue his case. He studied what casework he could rigorously questioning his public defenders. But time after time his case was shoved aside. Amiable bright and peaceable he struggled to stay alive in prison. As the years ground on he’d begun to lose hope when by chance he met Catharine O’Daniel a successful criminal defense lawyer. Although nearly all cases with a signed confession result in a conviction she was so moved by him and so convinced of his innocence that Cathy accepted Jovan as her first pro bono client. Cathy asked Laura Caldwell to join her and together they battled for Jovan’s exoneration. Here is Laura’s firsthand account of their remarkable journey.. This is a harrowing true story about justice friendship failure and success. A breakdown of the justice system sent a nice kid to one of the nation’s nastiest jails for nearly six years without a trial. It would take a triumph of human kindness ingenuity and legal jousting to give Jovan even a fighting chance.. Deeply affecting Long Way Home is a remarkable story of how change can happen even in a flawed system and of how friendship can emanate from the most unexpected places.