David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

times. He had served four years in
prison before he was exonerated by an
appeals court. The man sat in their
kitchen. They gave him a slice of cherry
pie—and he began to talk.
“We all sat around the table and just
stared at him,” Wilma Derksen said. “I
remember him going through all the
trials—all three. He had this little black
book—very much like a reporter does.
He went through every detail. He even
had the bills he’d paid. He lined them all
up. He talked about Sophonow, the
impossibility of the trials, his anger that
there was no justice, the inability of the
system to pin the crime on anybody. He
wanted something clear. This whole
process had destroyed him. It had