several years past before jerry learned that earl washington was not guilty. it had to be like fifteen to twenty executions at that girl who was released from death row that i found out that he was he was innocent as it wound that's as close calling you know he came within days and i would execute him as a person. our criminal justice system supposed to be the best in the world. make those mistakes and yet when you see a person like earl washington. something happened there. in the aftermath of the oklahoma city bombing in one thousand nine hundred five congress passed legislation to escalate death sentences the result was a dramatic increase in executions by one thousand nine hundred nine jerry was putting to death more than one person per month. and a death certificate reads. death by almost. you know don't make sense i don't want to be consider person deaths committed. but that's what every. six to two executions and only kilobit at the scene was myself and i refused to look into the mirror. she nearly took the life of her washington and couldn't help but w

i don't think we make those mistakes and yet when you see a person like earl washington. something happened. in the aftermath of the oklahoma city bombing in one thousand nine hundred five congress passed legislation to escalate death sentences the result was a dramatic increase in executions by one thousand nine hundred nine jerry was putting to death more than one person per month. the death certificate reads. death by almost. you know don't make sense i don't want to be consider person deaths committed almost but that's when it really. the sixty two executions and only kilobit accuracy was myself and i refused to look into the mirror. he nearly took the life of her washington and couldn't help but wonder if there were others. research now shows that for every nine executions there is one inmate found innocent and exonerated. one out of ten who might have been mistakenly put to death. what holds its institutions to. put themselves on the line to get accepted will reject. so when you want to be president and you. want to. have to lie to the press this is what the forty t

gerry served his time he learned that earl washington received a full pardon and after seventeen years was finally released from prison about four percent of the guys that have executed and they stuck out that they were innocent so in napa earle's case you know placed doubt here to find out that innocent people were there on death row. after serving his time jerry worked hard to rebuild his life. he begins speaking out against the death penalty one of the few executioners to do so we need to do that we need to change and i didn't enjoy killing people so what can we do to prevent these things from happening. jerry thought often about washington. if i ever get to see him i want to say oh you know i'm sorry but i'm glad that things didn't go in a way there was plan to go and i'm glad to see you on a side because i can apologize to you after that take your life you know after i had biden that's it. i'm glad i didn't get a chance to hit so i apologize to the name thank in a way i thought she was guilty. jerry decided to visit her to talk with him face to face. though it had been many years

visit to book fair in washington, d.c. author earl swift spoke with us about struggles a 200-year-old grabbing community in middle of chesapeake bay. >> university of virginia, author of 5 other books, most resent, "chesapeake requiem." a year with waterman. mr. swift where is that. >> tan jere is in middle of widest part of chesapeake bay, about 30 miles across, an hour and change by boat. tiny spec of mud and march out in middle of 18 trillion gallons of water. >> 450 people live there. >> give or take. >> why did you get interested? >> i went there initially a as a newspaper reporter and struck by how odd and interesting it was. it is unlike any other town in america. so isolated it has its own style of speech it developed over last 240 years, every islander can trace their lyn lineage to first settlers in 1770s, it is a factory town, devoted to catching crops an crabs and oys. >> a lot of people may know tangier it was separated from mainland, they have a unique style of talk, you got interested because of the climate. tangier los

eight years, blew hot and cold on the issue but if you add up the dedegradation of washington, dc, the appoints. of earl warren, brown verdict board and the intervention in little rock it's an astounding efforts and he did morning many of his predecessors in some of his successors to advance the agenda of civil rights in america. the last point i want to make is really about eisenhower's impact on the presidency itself. the way i see it, eisenhower established a distinct till model of presidential leadership that americans today, i think, could benefit from studying. i won't name names. i called it in at the book the disciplined presidency. the disciplined presidency. disciplined was eisenhower's star. he was raced in a very strict and very frugal family. he was trained for a career of soldiering. ice horn believed the discipline was the key to success. not only did he apply discipline to his own person, he maintain head weight very carefully, weighed 175 pounds most of his life. he quit a four-pack- -- four packs a day habit overnight, just said i put it out of my mind. i don't know if that would work

washington jr. he was tried to tell society back then that he was innocent to get no one really paid no attention. in one nine hundred eighty three earl was arrested in culpepper virginia and brought in for. questioning he thought it was for a burglary he had committed the question a the buy different. and leaves it at us data. and they than no i want to call. them out which call kept mobile. was going to dump and. after intense questioning police officers extracted a confession from her for the brutal rape and stabbing murder of a one thousand year old mother of three. at his trial experts testified that earle had an i.q. of only sixty nine and was extremely suggestible casting doubt on his confession. despite inconclusive evidence the jury found guilty and the judge sentenced him to death. he was taken to mecklenburg supermax prison in virginia. he was scared to death he was tempted he didn't want to come out of so. he's mentally retarded he couldn't read.

washington jr. he was trying to tell society back then that he was innocent to get no one really paid no attention. in one nine hundred eighty three earl was arrested in culpepper virginia and brought in for questioning he thought it was for a burglary he had committed. a question by different. and these are the data. and they know i want to quote them out of which call kept. the death penalty. after intense questioning. officers extracted a confession from earl for the brutal rape and stabbing murder of a one thousand year old mother of three. at his trial experts testified that earle had an i.q. of only sixty nine and was extremely suggestible casting doubt on his confession. despite inconclusive evidence the jury found guilty and the judge sentenced him to death. he was taken to mecklenburg a supermax prison in virginia. he was scared to death he was tempted he didn't want to come out of so. he's mentally retarded he couldn't read he couldn't write i walked in to the cell and he needed entering bangle door come see what you want that was earl the whole time he was on the road he was. scared to have it all as they were me my mom did

washington jr. he was trying to tell society by. that he was innocent to get no one really paid no attention. in one thousand nine hundred three earl was arrested in cole pepper virginia and brought in for questioning he thought it was for a burglary he had committed to so i old question the by different.

washington jr. he was trying to tell society back then that he was innocent to get no one really paid no attention. in one nine hundred eighty three earl was arrested in cole pepper virginia and brought in for questioning he thought it was for a burglary he had committed to so i old question by different. and these are the data. and they know i want to quote up murder rape or murder which call kept. death penalty. after intense.

near to the park, it's possible though not proven that george washington may have slept on our property. but my question is for cokie. earl you you alluded to the fact that when you're interviewing someone you have the answer. you've done the research, you have an idea of what to expect. in all the interviews that you've done, have you ever had an experience where you asked the question and the answer that you received was quite different from what you expected? >> sure, all the time but you still need to know the topic, be able to -- it's kind of like saying to your old uncle "tell me the one about." and you'll get the best from somebody because you know that he tells a good story about the one about but often when you're on that train of questioning -- you don't know everything going in, you wouldn't learning anything, but you learn a tremendous amount, you're often surprised and sometimes unpleasantly so. >> you're up, sir, welcome. >> my name is paul st.lair, director of the george w. bush home in midland, texas. our goal is to talk about the bush family during their ten years in west texas and my question is for jeff

of the reasons we were talking earl yeah marty and i, about the matter of digital-only subscribers you have now which is sort of off the chart. same with the "washington post." but you talked about how do we close pandora's box? we don't. that box doesn't close. we have to navigate around and through it. >> so then if i understand you correctly, all of us on this riser and everyone in this room are arctic ice. listen, let's take questions from the floor. >> thank you very much, bob. thank you, frank. i know you have to rush off. a round of applause for frank. [ applause ] >> he actually didn't have to leave for another ten minutes, but now he's forced to go. >> one little housekeeping matter, immediately after this event, starting at 5:30, many of you are going to be heading over to the supreme court for a conversation with justice sotomayor followed by a reception. we have buses to take people over there. we've been told for security reasons we can only make one trip over which will be about 11 110 people. if you have other means to get over there, please do so. . we don't have room to take all 170 or so that can be allowed into the conversation with