Trial by Ambush: Murder, Injustice, and the Truth about the Case of Barbara Graham
“Trial by Ambush is a historic case study of prosecutorial behavior at one of its ugliest moments—a moment that served no one, not the innocent, the guilty, or society in general.”
Applying her extensive background in courtrooms—as a defense attorney, prosecutor, and appellate lawyer—Marsha Clark flexed her analytical mind and creative writing skills into a prolific second career as a crime-fiction writer. Only recently has she traveled the path toward nonfiction: taking on writing about true crime cases. It was important, she decided, to select just the right cases to research and everything about the Barbara Graham case made it a difficult one to choose. Mainly the fact that the murder and trial happened in 1953 and the likelihood of obtaining original documents was dim. The turning point for choosing this case was a photo:
“Wearing a prison-issue dress, seated next to her lawyer, Barbara Graham, just thirty years old and the only woman in the room, is looking up at the sea of reporters—all men, their cameras and lights pointing down at her. A few of them on bended knee, leaning toward her like nervous lovers about to propose. A palpable intensity radiating from the scene makes it feel as though Barbara could be consumed on the spot by the sheer energy pouring down at her. She stares over her shoulder at them, her expression fearful, bewildered. She looks vulnerable, small, and very alone. The antithesis of all the news coverage I’d read that painted her as a vicious and cold-blooded, albeit beautiful, murderer.”
It was at that moment that Clark decided to search for the court transcripts. Much press had been devoted to this case in the early 1950s, and even a film was later made. It all raised too many questions in Clark’s mind—why such sensational journalism about this beautiful woman? Why had this woman been convicted of murder when there was no physical evidence proving she was even present at the crime scene?
After much researching, requesting, and waiting, Clark received three boxes.
“It took me a few minutes to cut the tape and look inside. And then, I saw . . . ‘Volume One—Reporter’s Transcript.’ I had them! The trial transcripts. All four-thousand-plus pages of them . . . Now, I could tell the whole story, the story no one had yet told.”
And what a story it was. With the transcripts in hand, it didn’t take long before Clark was questioning the legal and ethical judgments of the prosecution team, the reporters, and even the judge. As the defense attorney said at closing arguments, “the prosecution . . . went to the lengths that I have never seen the like of to try to pin this atrocity on someone, and there wasn’t too much difference who they pinned it on.”
Clark’s own assessment of what happened at trial echoed this comment. “The way they went after Barbara, crashing through all legal and ethical guardrails in their zeal to take her down, was unprecedented in my experience—either as a prosecutor or a defense attorney . . . No doubt those excesses (by the prosecution) were motivated in part by their awareness that the entire case hinged on an accomplice of dubious credibility who had a hands-on role in the murder.”
In this fast-moving and highly engaging book, Marcia Clark takes the reader on the rerun of the trial, critiquing the actions of the characters in the way only a retrospective, analytical view allows.
Since the 1950s legislation has been clarified and tightened and gross errors are less frequent. It’s doubtful a case so blatantly biased and unfair could happen today, but we continue to see the innocent wrongly convicted and punished for someone else’s crime. Trial by Ambush is a historic case study of prosecutorial behavior at one of its ugliest moments—a moment that served no one, not the innocent, the guilty, or society in general.