May 22 2024 40 mins
When Alvin Ridley’s wife was discovered dead in their home, residents of the small town of Ringgold, Georgia assumed the recluse, hoarder, and odd fellow naturally murdered her. His difficulty in communicating what took place added to the conclusion many had drawn about his guilt. As it turns out, they were proven wrong in a court of law, thanks to the interesting, often contentious, bond that developed between our guest, McCracken Poston, Jr., Ridley’s lawyer, and the defendant. Poston’s new book, “Zenith Man: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom,” was many years in development as he analyzed what happened then in relation to the better vantage point he now has decades later. While Poston juxtaposes his own struggles at the time personally and professionally the more complicated puzzle involved Ridley’s adult autism, not understood back then, and the rare condition that led to his wife’s death. Many people today still fall through the cracks of the criminal justice system because of autism and mental illness. The case may have been settled satisfactorily, and mental health is given greater parity today with physical conditions, but the crisis of undiagnosed or misdiagnosed developmental conditions persists in the criminal justice system.