Arcadia Revisited: The Story of James Joseph Richardson

On May 27, 1968, a black fruit picker from Arcadia, Florida, went on trial for the murder of his seven children. The judge was white; the jury was white; the prosecutors and defense attorney were white. The State’s case rested on three key witnesses, none of whom was called to testify. Yet James Richardson was convicted and sentenced to death. Mark Lane was convinced James Richardson was innocent and investigated the case. He wrote the book, Arcadia, in which he presented the characters, plot, motives, courtroom testimony, silent witnesses and the ambiance of a small southern town, the ingredients for a tragic miscarriage of justice. In 1989, armed with new evidence, Mark Lane went back to Arcadia and to the case of James Joseph Richardson. Arcadia Revisited is the story of a long delayed justice for a black man condemned by a white community.