Martin D. Yant began his career in 1971 at The Pittsburgh Press after
graduating from Georgetown University. From 1972 to 1978, he served in several key
editing positions at the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times. In 1978,
Yant became editor of the Mansfield, Ohio, News Journal. An award-winning
investigation Yant launched there led to the conviction of the sheriff and seven
deputies; the resignation of the county coroner and the closing of his
private medical lab; and the defeat of several other elected officials. Articles
about Yant's crusading journalism in Mansfield appeared in The New York Times;
Time magazine; and many other publications -- some as far away as France and
Russia.
From 1981 to 1991, Yant was commentary editor and a columnist at The
Columbus Dispatch, where editorial differences prompted Yant to resign in 1991 to
devote full time to independent journalism and investigations of possible
wrongful convictions. Since then, evidence Yant developed has aided in the
exoneration of 9 innocent inmates, two of whom were originally sentenced to death.
Two others were released after governors expressed doubt about their guilt and
made them immediately eligible for parole.
The licensed private investigator has discussed wrongful convictions and
other forms of injustice on numerous TV and radio talk shows and had his
investigations featured on NBC-TV’s Unsolved Mysteries, The CBS Evening News, 48
Hours, A&E’s American Justice, the Discovery Channel and a German TV network.
Yant also was a consultant for Final Appeal, an NBC-TV series on wrongful
convictions, in 1992. That same year, an exposé on the Franklin County Sheriff’s
Department he wrote for Columbus Alive was credited with causing the
electoral defeat of the powerful incumbent sheriff, Earl Smith. In 1994, the evidence
Yant helped develop on a jailhouse beating death in Columbus led to the
largest civil-rights settlement in Ohio history. In 1996, while representing
himself, Yant won a public-records case against the Ohio Bureau of Worker's
Compensation in the Ohio Supreme Court. A series of articles Yant co-wrote with
Bob Fitrakis on the John Byrd death-penalty case for Columbus Alive won a
statewide journalism award in 2002. Yant also has written five books:
* Presumed Guilty: When Innocent People Are Wrongly Convicted (Prometheus,
1991) shows how carelessness, investigations that fit facts to theories, the
use of long-discredited investigative techniques, prejudice and the desire of
police and prosecutors to “win” at any price cause thousands of mistaken
convictions for serious crimes every year. An August 2000 review of all books
on wrongful convictions written in the last 100 years in Justice Denied: The
Magazine for the Wrongly Convicted pronounced Presumed Guilty “the most
readable, [which] in no detracts from its wealth of information.”
* Desert Mirage: The True Story of the Gulf War (Prometheus, 1991) documents
how the Bush administration deceived Americans into supporting the pursuit
of power disguised as the pursuit of principle. Kirkus Reviews called the book
“a carefully documented, scathing indictment of the Persian Gulf War . . .
in the best tradition of contrarian investigative journalism.” Foreword by
Senator John Glenn, who called Yant “a craftsman of meticulous research,
insightful analysis and unflinching conclusions.”
* Rotten to the Core: Crime, Sex and Corruption in Johnny Appleseed’s
Hometown (Public Eye, 1994), a personal account of what Time called a “painful
victory” by a “persistent editor” over corruption in a typical American town. “
Every citizen . . . ought to read this book,” Steve Allen wrote in his
foreword. Added Akron Beacon Journal columnist Steve Love: “[Yant] gives
journalists a good name, serving as a counterweight to the profession’s often poor
standing in public opinion polls.”
* Tin Star Tyrants: America’s Crooked Sheriffs (Public Eye, 1995) unmasks
those who use their tin stars as a license to cheat, steal, frame suspects,
beat and kill. “This eye-opening exposé . . . is a powerful reminder of the
importance of a free press,” Publisher’s Weekly said. "The better stories
crackle with a sense of small-town America not much changed since Dashiell Hammett’
s Red Harvest."
* Rotten to the Core 2: More Crime, Sex and Corruption in Johnny Appleseed’s
Hometown (Public Eye, 2003), an updated and greatly expanded personal
account of Yant’s battle against corruption in a typical American town. The final
chapter tells how Yant’s investigations since leaving Mansfield, Ohio, have
convinced him that corruption is a widespread cancer on America’s soul. "If you
care about how our public officials carry out their duties, a copy of Rotten
to the Core 2 deserves a prominent spot on your library shelves." -- Bob
Powers, The Marietta Times
Visit him online at
www.truthinjustice.org/yant/