"A Second Reckoning" tells the story of John Snowden, a Black man accused of the murder of a pregnant white woman in Maryland in 1917. He refused to confess despite undergoing torture, was found guilty by an all-white jury, and was hanged. Decades after his death, he was pardoned by the governor of Maryland. The book uses his case to advocate re-examination of cases in which prejudice may have tainted procedures or verdicts, evidence of bias survives, and a constituency exists for a second look.