Marvin Beckett is a politically powerful African American civil rights activist who, according to Hodgins, made his bones protesting African American overrepresentation in the Vietnam War. In 1978, he was arrested after being framed for the murder for Gus Harper. His trial in 1979 sentenced him to life in prison.
In 2008, the Jeffersonian Institution was able to exhume Harper's remains and exonerate Beckett. Later, he came to thank Booth, Brennan, and Caroline in person, ensuring that he never committed the crimes he was framed for and that they freed an innocent man. They later discovered that Gus Harper's real killer was FBI Deputy Director Robert Kirby.