Includes bibliographical references and index.

"On the night of January 27, 1896, 14-year-old Annie Kempton was brutally murdered. Throat slashed, face beaten, she bled to death on the floor of her family home in Bear River, Nova Scotia. An entire community and a salacious media rose and pointed their finger at one man: Peter Wheeler. According to the newspapers of the day, not only had Peter Wheeler killed Annie Kempton, he had also committed the unforgivable sin of being dark-skinned and foreign-born, a hired hand who had never learned his place. Thanks to a Halifax detective, the self-proclaimed Sherlock Holmes of the Maritimes, the jury deliberated less than two hours before declaring Peter Wheeler guilty of murder. Peter Wheeler was hanged at 2:21 am on September 8, 1896. The case was among the first in Canada to introduce forensic evidence in a courtroom. Re-examining the evidence using modern techniques, Komar reveals how Peter Wheeler was the victim of a state-sanctioned lynching, executed for a crime he didn't commit. Debra Komar has worked as a forensic anthropologist in the US, UK, and Canada"--Provided by publisher.