2018 STORY OF THE YEAR
BIRDIE BARRAGE
BROTHERS
IN GOLF
Norwalk’s Max Adler, right, a fi ne player and frequent
participant in CSGA events, and Valentino Dixon, an inmate
whose golf-themed artwork caught Adler’s eye, together
wrote the biggest story of 2018. Adler’s six years of advocacy
on behalf of Dixon bore fruit when the Erie County District
Court in Buffalo, N.Y., vacated Dixon’s murder conviction,
freeing him after 27 years of wrongful incarceration. Adler
found Dixon’s conviction fi shy. His stories, beginning in
2012, drew the attention of the Georgetown University Prison
Reform Project among others. “It’s embarrassing for the
legal system that for a long time the best presentation of the
investigation was from a golf magazine,” said one advocate.
Maybe so, but for Adler and Dixon, the victory was joyous.
“Lesser men would’ve broken,” wrote Adler. “Valentino has
some good years ahead. Maybe he’ll even take up golf.”
26 | CSGA Links / December 2018
Vol6_issue6.indd 26
Photo: Jonathan www.csgalinks.org
Mehring
12/19/18 4:25 PM