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Gilbert King won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for “Devil in the Grove.” His podcast “Bone Valley,” which has much more information about the case, can be found at lavaforgood.com/bone-valley
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"A Lakeland murder. A sham trial. And decades of heartbreak for the man who says he didn’t do it. There is a compelling case for exonerating Leo Schofield.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/12/23/editorial-did-leo-schofield-spend-36-years-behind-bars-for-a-murder-he-didnt-commit-its-past-time-to-find-out/"
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And yet, the state of Florida refused to believe either man. In the eyes of the law, the matter had been settled. But rather than investigate and risk the possibility of having to lose a conviction, the state chose to preserve the outcome, not to test it. My book is the investigation the state of Florida failed to do."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "What shaped the reporting of this story more than anything was the access we had to the people who lived it. Over the course of years, I spoke with Leo and Jeremy again and again—across prison visits, in recorded interviews, in handwritten letters, and in long, complicated conversations by phone. That proximity changed the story. I’ve long been inspired by the work of Bryan Stevenson, author of “Just Mercy,” about the importance of getting close — of being proximate — to the people most affected by injustice. This project was shaped by that proximity. It’s a story not just of error, but of empathy, redemption, and the quiet grace that can emerge from the idea that no one is beyond dignity and no story is beyond being heard.
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COMMENTARY: Search For Justice Inspired 'Bone Valley.' In this forward to his new book about Leo Schofield’s case, Bone Valley, Pultizer-prize winning author Gilbert King describes why he felt drawn to it. Orlando Sentinel: December 23;
GIST: "I didn’t set out to write this story. It came to me slowly, then all at once, first as a name on a business card handed to me by a judge, then as a case file, and eventually as a visit to a Florida prison.
Until now, much of my work has focused on the Jim Crow South — cases long settled, the violence folded into history, the outcomes fixed and final. This case was different. It refused to stay quiet. And the deeper I looked, the more it resembled the past I thought I’d left behind.
The criminal justice system that emerged from an era of racial terror and segregation — designed to punish, isolate, and control — is still intact.
Once built, it didn’t stop at race. It deepened along lines of class, power, and disposability, ensnaring defendants who found themselves trapped in a process that prioritizes finality — the principle that once a conviction is reached, it should remain undisturbed — and resists correction even when the evidence demands it.
Leo Schofield, the man at the center of this case, had been convicted by a jury and sentenced to life for the 1987 murder of his eighteen-year-old wife.
He filed appeal after appeal, all denied.
Courts reviewed his claims and affirmed his guilt. No mistake, they said.
No grounds for relief.
But Leo never stopped insisting he was innocent.
Seventeen years after the murder, newly identified forensic evidence placed someone else at the crime scene — a man named Jeremy Scott, who had a long record of violence in the same town and who had already been incarcerated for another murder.
At its core, this is the story of two young men from Lakeland, both connected to the murder of Michelle Schofield, both eventually arriving at the same version of the truth.
And yet, the state of Florida refused to believe either man.
In the eyes of the law, the matter had been settled.
But rather than investigate and risk the possibility of having to lose a conviction, the state chose to preserve the outcome, not to test it.
My book is the investigation the state of Florida failed to do.
It unfolded over six years and began with a podcast, Bone Valley, which I created alongside Kelsey Decker, whose integrity and unflinching sense of purpose shaped every part of the work.
That podcast introduced the case to millions of listeners.
It uncovered new evidence, unearthed forgotten voices, and revealed how far the State was willing to go to protect its conviction of Leo Schofield.
But the podcast only opened the door; this narrative steps further inside.
It mirrors our investigation and includes first-person reflections, moments that pull back the curtain on the process, and scenes drawn from trial transcripts, police reports, and defense records.
Here on the page, I’ve been able to build what we couldn’t reconstruct on the podcast. What we could only gesture toward on audio—the unfinished threads, the questions we couldn’t yet answer — could finally be explored here, over more time and with more depth, more clarity.
Along the way, the work became more personal.
It opened my eyes to the fragile, complicated space where truth and accountability sometimes converge — and sometimes fall apart.
What shaped the reporting of this story more than anything was the access we had to the people who lived it.
Over the course of years, I spoke with Leo and Jeremy again and again—across prison visits, in recorded interviews, in handwritten letters, and in long, complicated conversations by phone.
That proximity changed the story. I’ve long been inspired by the work of Bryan Stevenson, author of “Just Mercy,” about the importance of getting close — of being proximate — to the people most affected by injustice.
This project was shaped by that proximity. It’s a story not just of error, but of empathy, redemption, and the quiet grace that can emerge from the idea that no one is beyond dignity and no story is beyond being heard.
What the podcast Bone Valley carried was a sense of urgency, humanity, and heart — qualities that resonated with so many listeners. That spirit remains here.
But on the page, there’s more room to sit with the complications, to slow down, to stay with the parts that resist closure.
This isn’t simply a story about guilt or innocence.
It’s about what happens when the legal system locks itself into a version of events and refuses to let go, even when the facts no longer support it.
Sometimes an injustice isn’t the result of prosecutorial oversight, tunnel vision, or bias.
Sometimes it’s something else — a calculated series of choices: quiet, deliberate, and capable of destroying a life.
When the aim is not justice but victory, the truth can become collateral damage. And when finality is protected by both law and the courts, sometimes storytelling is the last remaining way to seek any form of justice.
The entire commentary can be read at:
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/12/23/commentary-search-for-justice-inspired-bone-valley/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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