The Innocence Commission

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Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 0814732267
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (147 download)

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Book Synopsis The Innocence Commission by : Jon B. Gould

Download or read book The Innocence Commission written by Jon B. Gould and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2009-11 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond Exonerating the Innocent: Author on WAMU Radio Convicted Yet Innocent: The Legal Times Review Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2008 DNA testing and advances in forensic science have shaken the foundations of the U.S. criminal justice system. One of the most visible results is the exoneration of inmates who were wrongly convicted and incarcerated, many of them sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit. This has caused a quandary for many states: how can claims of innocence be properly investigated and how can innocent inmates be reliably distinguished from the guilty? In answer, some states have created “innocence commissions” to establish policies and provide legal assistance to the improperly imprisoned. The Innocence Commission describes the creation and first years of the Innocence Commission for Virginia (ICVA), the second innocence commission in the nation and the first to conduct a systematic inquiry into all cases of wrongful conviction. Written by Jon B. Gould, the Chair of the ICVA, who is a professor of justice studies and an attorney, the author focuses on twelve wrongful conviction cases to show how and why wrongful convictions occur, what steps legal and state advocates took to investigate the convictions, how these prisoners were ultimately freed, and what lessons can be learned from their experiences. Gould recounts how a small band of attorneys and other advocates — in Virginia and around the country — have fought wrongful convictions in court, advanced the subject of wrongful convictions in the media, and sought to remedy the issue of wrongful convictions in the political arena. He makes a strong case for the need for Innocence Commissions in every state, showing that not only do Innocence Commissions help to identify weaknesses in the criminal justice system and offer workable improvements, but also protect society by helping to ensure that actual perpetrators are expeditiously identified, arrested, and brought to trial. Everyone has an interest in preventing wrongful convictions, from police officers and prosecutors, who seek the latest and best investigative techniques, to taxpayers, who want an efficient criminal justice system, to suspects who are erroneously pursued and sometimes convicted. Free of legal jargon and written for a general audience, The Innocence Commission is instructive, informative, and highly compelling reading.

Levon and Kennedy

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Publisher : powerHouse Books
ISBN 13 : 9781576878842
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (788 download)

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Book Synopsis Levon and Kennedy by : Isabelle Armand

Download or read book Levon and Kennedy written by Isabelle Armand and published by powerHouse Books. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two African American men from poor, rural Mississippi wrongfully convicted for crimes they didn't commit. Lost years of their lives spent in jail and finally released a decade a half later thanks to the Innocence Project and DNA testing. This is their life for all to see. In the early 1990s in a small disadvantaged community in rural Mississippi, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer were wrongfully convicted in separate trials of capital murder. Brooks, despite an alibi, was sentenced to life and was imprisoned for 18 years. A few years later Brewer was convicted and sentenced to death. He was incarcerated for 15. In 2008 the Innocence Project in New York exonerated both men. Vanessa Potkin, longtime attorney at the Innocence Project, along with co-founder of the Innocence Project, Peter Neufeld, spent years investigating the two cases, and discovered a link between them that subsequent DNA testing substantiated. The results of that testing led authorities to the real perpetrator who was responsible for both murders and then to the exonerations of Brooks and Brewer. Without the work of the Innocence Project, Potkin, Neufeld, and a host of others, these photographs-of lives lost, forgotten, and then regained-would not have been possible. The photographs' poignance is made all the more powerful as one contemplates their stark, deeply felt beauty against the haunting realization that they were almost never able to be made or seen at all. The evidence against Brooks and Brewer consisted primarily of bite mark matching evidence. A prosecution expert testified that in both cases multiple bite marks covered the victims' bodies and matched the defendants' teeth impressions. A group of experts retained by the Innocence Project later determined that the marks were not bite marks at all. As a forensic discipline, bite mark matching has come under serious criticism in recent years and led to the exoneration of multiple other prisoners. This same prosecution expert testified not only in Brooks's and Brewer's cases, but a host of others in Mississippi and the region. The extent of the damage is still unknown. In 2012, photographer Isabelle Armand came across an article about these two cases. Such a scenario seemed unbelievable. How, why, and where could this happen? How does one cope with wrongful conviction? For the next five years, she spent several weeks each year documenting Brooks, Brewer, their families and their environment. This intimate photographic essay, akin to looking in a mirror, puts faces on the victims of wrongful convictions. It seeks to raise consciousness, challenge popular perceptions about poverty and inequality in our criminal justice system, and demands that we confront these critical issues.

Exit to Freedom

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Publisher : University of Georgia Press
ISBN 13 : 9780820327846
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (278 download)

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Book Synopsis Exit to Freedom by : Calvin C. Johnson, Jr.

Download or read book Exit to Freedom written by Calvin C. Johnson, Jr. and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2005-09-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The only firsthand account of a wrongful conviction overturned by DNA evidence"--Cover.

Actual Innocence

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Publisher : Doubleday Books
ISBN 13 : 038549341X
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (854 download)

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Book Synopsis Actual Innocence by : Jim Dwyer

Download or read book Actual Innocence written by Jim Dwyer and published by Doubleday Books. This book was released on 2000 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten true tales of people falsely accused detail the flaws in the criminal justice system that landed these people in prison

The Innocent Man

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Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0307576019
Total Pages : 410 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (75 download)

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Book Synopsis The Innocent Man by : John Grisham

Download or read book The Innocent Man written by John Grisham and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2010-03-16 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction: a true crime story that will terrify anyone who believes in the presumption of innocence. • LOOK FOR THE NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES “Both an American tragedy and [Grisham’s] strongest legal thriller yet, all the more gripping because it happens to be true.”—Entertainment Weekly In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron’s home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it led to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death—in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man’s already broken life, and let a true killer go free. Impeccably researched, grippingly told, filled with eleventh-hour drama, The Innocent Man reads like a page-turning legal thriller. It is a book no American can afford to miss. Don’t miss John Grisham’s new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!

Controversies in Innocence Cases in America

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Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN 13 : 1409463567
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Controversies in Innocence Cases in America by : Ms Sarah Lucy Cooper

Download or read book Controversies in Innocence Cases in America written by Ms Sarah Lucy Cooper and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2014-05-28 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Controversies in Innocence Cases in America brings together leading experts on the investigation, litigation, and scholarly analysis of innocence cases in America, from legal, political and ethical perspectives. The contributors, many of whom work on these cases daily, investigate contemporary issues presented by innocence cases and the exoneration movement as a whole. These issues include the challenges faced by the movement, causes of wrongful convictions, problems associated with investigating, proving, and defining 'innocence', and theories of reform. Each issue is placed within a multi-disciplinary perspective to provide cogent observations and recommendations for the effective handling of these cases, and for what changes should be adopted in order to improve the American criminal justice system when it is faced with its most harrowing sight: an innocent defendant.

Convicting the Innocent

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674060989
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Convicting the Innocent by : Brandon L. Garrett

Download or read book Convicting the Innocent written by Brandon L. Garrett and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-04 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On January 20, 1984, Earl Washington—defended for all of forty minutes by a lawyer who had never tried a death penalty case—was found guilty of rape and murder in the state of Virginia and sentenced to death. After nine years on death row, DNA testing cast doubt on his conviction and saved his life. However, he spent another eight years in prison before more sophisticated DNA technology proved his innocence and convicted the guilty man. DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free. In this unsettling in-depth analysis, Brandon Garrett examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 wrongfully convicted people to be exonerated by DNA testing. Based on trial transcripts, Garrett’s investigation into the causes of wrongful convictions reveals larger patterns of incompetence, abuse, and error. Evidence corrupted by suggestive eyewitness procedures, coercive interrogations, unsound and unreliable forensics, shoddy investigative practices, cognitive bias, and poor lawyering illustrates the weaknesses built into our current criminal justice system. Garrett proposes practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence, and less on fallible human memory. Very few crimes committed in the United States involve biological evidence that can be tested using DNA. How many unjust convictions are there that we will never discover? Convicting the Innocent makes a powerful case for systemic reforms to improve the accuracy of all criminal cases.

Postconviction DNA Testing

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 117 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (327 download)

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Book Synopsis Postconviction DNA Testing by : National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence (National Institute of Justice)

Download or read book Postconviction DNA Testing written by National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence (National Institute of Justice) and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A report from National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence"--Cover.

Bitemark Evidence

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Publisher : CRC Press
ISBN 13 : 9781439818633
Total Pages : 680 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (186 download)

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Book Synopsis Bitemark Evidence by : Robert B.J. Dorion

Download or read book Bitemark Evidence written by Robert B.J. Dorion and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2011-03-16 with total page 680 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experts in the field of bitemark evidence confront complexities ranging from the identification and collection of evidence, to microscopic analysis, to legal implications and courtroom admissibility. Now in its second edition, Bitemark Evidence reflects the knowledge, training, experience, opinions, and research of 27 authors from around the world

Anatomy of Innocence: Testimonies of the Wrongfully Convicted

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Publisher : Liveright Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1631490893
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (314 download)

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Book Synopsis Anatomy of Innocence: Testimonies of the Wrongfully Convicted by : Laura Caldwell

Download or read book Anatomy of Innocence: Testimonies of the Wrongfully Convicted written by Laura Caldwell and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2017-03-28 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recalling the great muckrakers of the past, an outraged team of America’s best-selling writers unite to confront the disasters of wrongful convictions. Wrongful convictions, long regarded as statistical anomalies in an otherwise sound justice system, now appear with frightening regularity. But few people understand just how or why they happen and, more important, the immeasurable consequences that often haunt the lucky few who are acquitted, years after they are proven innocent. Now, in this groundbreaking anthology, fourteen exonerated inmates narrate their stories to a roster of high-profile mystery and thriller writers—including Lee Child, Sara Paretsky, Laurie R. King, Jan Burke and S. J. Rozan—while another exoneree’s case is explored in a previously unpublished essay by legendary playwright Arthur Miller. An astonishing and unique collaboration, these testimonies bear witness to the incredible stories of innocent men and women who were convicted of serious crimes and cast into the maw of a vast and deeply flawed American criminal justice system before eventually, and miraculously, being exonerated. Introduced by best-selling authors Scott Turow and Barry Scheck, these master storytellers capture the tragedy of wrongful convictions as never before and challenge readers to confront the limitations and harsh realities of the American criminal justice system. Lee Child tells of Kirk Bloodsworth, who obsessively read about the burgeoning field of DNA testing, cautiously hoping that it held the key to his acquittal—until he eventually became the first person to be exonerated from death row based on DNA evidence. Judge John Sheldon and author Gayle Lynds team up to share Audrey Edmunds’s experience raising her children long distance from her prison cell. And exoneree Gloria Killian recounts to S. J. Rozan her journey from that fateful "knock on the door" and the initial shock of accusation to the scars she carries today. Together, the powerful stories collected within the Anatomy of Innocence detail every aspect of the experience of wrongful conviction, as well as the remarkable depths of endurance sustained by each exoneree who never lost hope.

When Truth Is All You Have

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Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0525566821
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (255 download)

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Book Synopsis When Truth Is All You Have by : Jim McCloskey

Download or read book When Truth Is All You Have written by Jim McCloskey and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2021-06-29 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A riveting and infuriating examination of criminal prosecutions, revealing how easy it is to convict the wrong person and how nearly impossible it is to undo the error.” —Washington Post "No one has illuminated this problem more thoughtfully and persistently." —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy Jim McCloskey was at a midlife crossroads when he met the man who would change his life. A former management consultant, McCloskey had grown disenchanted with the business world; he enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary at the age of 37. His first assignment, in 1980, was as a chaplain at Trenton State Prison. Among the inmates was Jorge de los Santos, a heroin addict who'd been convicted of murder years earlier. He swore to McCloskey that he was innocent—and, over time, McCloskey came to believe him. With no legal or investigative training to speak of, McCloskey threw himself into the case. Two years later, thanks to those efforts, Jorge de los Santos walked free, fully exonerated. McCloskey had found his calling. He established Centurion Ministries, the first group in America devoted to overturning wrongful convictions. Together with his staff and a team of forensic experts, lawyers, and volunteers—through tireless investigation and an unflagging dedication to justice—Centurion has freed 65 innocent prisoners who had been sentenced to life or death. When Truth Is All You Have is McCloskey's inspirational story, as well as those of the unjustly imprisoned for whom he has fought. Spanning the nation, it is a chronicle of faith and doubt; of triumphant success and shattering failure. It candidly exposes a life of searching and struggle, uplifted by McCloskey's certainty that he had found what he was put on earth to do. Filled with generosity, humor, and compassion, it is the soul-bearing account of a man who has redeemed innumerable lives—and incited a movement—with nothing more than his unshakeable belief in the truth.

Picking Cotton

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Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 9781429962155
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (621 download)

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Book Synopsis Picking Cotton by : Jennifer Thompson-Cannino

Download or read book Picking Cotton written by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2010-01-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times best selling true story of an unlikely friendship forged between a woman and the man she incorrectly identified as her rapist and sent to prison for 11 years. Jennifer Thompson was raped at knifepoint by a man who broke into her apartment while she slept. She was able to escape, and eventually positively identified Ronald Cotton as her attacker. Ronald insisted that she was mistaken-- but Jennifer's positive identification was the compelling evidence that put him behind bars. After eleven years, Ronald was allowed to take a DNA test that proved his innocence. He was released, after serving more than a decade in prison for a crime he never committed. Two years later, Jennifer and Ronald met face to face-- and forged an unlikely friendship that changed both of their lives. With Picking Cotton, Jennifer and Ronald tell in their own words the harrowing details of their tragedy, and challenge our ideas of memory and judgment while demonstrating the profound nature of human grace and the healing power of forgiveness.

Ghost of the Innocent Man

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Publisher : Back Bay Books
ISBN 13 : 9780316311502
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (115 download)

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Book Synopsis Ghost of the Innocent Man by : Benjamin Rachlin

Download or read book Ghost of the Innocent Man written by Benjamin Rachlin and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2018-08-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the Best Books of 2017: National Public Radio, San Francisco Chronicle, Library Journal, Shelf Awareness "Remarkable . . . Captivating . . . Rachlin is a skilled storyteller." --New York Times Book Review "A gripping legal-thriller mystery . . . Profoundly elevates good-cause advocacy to greater heights--to where innocent lives are saved." --USA Today "A crisply written page turner." --NPR A gripping account of one man's long road to freedom that will forever change how we understand our criminal justice system During the last three decades, more than two thousand American citizens have been wrongfully convicted. Ghost of the Innocent Man brings us one of the most dramatic of those cases and provides the clearest picture yet of the national scourge of wrongful conviction and of the opportunity for meaningful reform. When the final gavel clapped in a rural southern courtroom in the summer of 1988, Willie J. Grimes, a gentle spirit with no record of violence, was shocked and devastated to be convicted of first-degree rape and sentenced to life imprisonment. Here is the story of this everyman and his extraordinary quarter-century-long journey to freedom, told in breathtaking and sympathetic detail, from the botched evidence and suspect testimony that led to his incarceration to the tireless efforts to prove his innocence and the identity of the true perpetrator. These were spearheaded by his relentless champion, Christine Mumma, a cofounder of North Carolina's Innocence Inquiry Commission. That commission--unprecedented at its inception in 2006--remains a model organization unlike any other in the country, and one now responsible for a growing number of exonerations. With meticulous, prismatic research and pulse-quickening prose, Benjamin Rachlin presents one man's tragedy and triumph. The jarring and unsettling truth is that the story of Willie J. Grimes, for all its outrage, dignity, and grace, is not a unique travesty. But through the harrowing and suspenseful account of one life, told from the inside, we experience the full horror of wrongful conviction on a national scale. Ghost of the Innocent Man is both rare and essential, a masterwork of empathy. The book offers a profound reckoning not only with the shortcomings of our criminal justice system but also with its possibilities for redemption.

Wrongful Convictions and the DNA Revolution

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108138675
Total Pages : 441 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (81 download)

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Book Synopsis Wrongful Convictions and the DNA Revolution by : Daniel S. Medwed

Download or read book Wrongful Convictions and the DNA Revolution written by Daniel S. Medwed and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-30 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, most people believed the criminal justice system worked - that only guilty defendants were convicted. DNA technology shattered that belief. DNA has now freed more than three hundred innocent prisoners in the United States. This book examines the lessons learned from twenty-five years of DNA exonerations and identifies lingering challenges. By studying the dataset of DNA exonerations, we know that precise factors lead to wrongful convictions. These include eyewitness misidentifications, false confessions, dishonest informants, poor defense lawyering, weak forensic evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct. In Part I, scholars discuss the efforts of the Innocence Movement over the past quarter century to expose the phenomenon of wrongful convictions and to implement lasting reforms. In Part II, another set of researchers looks ahead and evaluates what still needs to be done to realize the ideal of a more accurate system.

Autopsy of a Crime Lab

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Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520389654
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis Autopsy of a Crime Lab by : Brandon L. Garrett

Download or read book Autopsy of a Crime Lab written by Brandon L. Garrett and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2022-03 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book exposes the dangerously imperfect forensic evidence that we rely on for criminal convictions. "That's not my fingerprint, your honor," said the defendant, after FBI experts reported a "100-percent identification." The FBI was wrong. It is shocking how often they are. Autopsy of a Crime Lab is the first book to catalog the sources of error and the faulty science behind a range of well-known forensic evidence, from fingerprints and firearms to forensic algorithms. In this devastating forensic takedown, noted legal expert Brandon L. Garrett poses the questions that should be asked in courtrooms every day: Where are the studies that validate the basic premises of widely accepted techniques such as fingerprinting? How can experts testify with 100-percent certainty about a fingerprint, when there is no such thing as a 100 percent match? Where is the quality control at the crime scenes and in the laboratories? Should we so readily adopt powerful new technologies like facial recognition software and rapid DNA machines? And why have judges been so reluctant to consider the weaknesses of so many long-accepted methods? Taking us into the lives of the wrongfully convicted or nearly convicted, into crime labs rocked by scandal, and onto the front lines of promising reform efforts driven by professionals and researchers alike, Autopsy of a Crime Lab illustrates the persistence and perniciousness of shaky science and its well-meaning practitioners.

TIME Innocent

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Publisher : Time Inc. Books
ISBN 13 : 1683300394
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (833 download)

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Book Synopsis TIME Innocent by : The Editors of Time

Download or read book TIME Innocent written by The Editors of Time and published by Time Inc. Books. This book was released on 2017-02-17 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TIME looks at those wrongfully convicted, and the fight to set them free.

Justice Perverted

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781937484361
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (843 download)

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Book Synopsis Justice Perverted by : William B. Crawford

Download or read book Justice Perverted written by William B. Crawford and published by . This book was released on 2015-06-09 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rick Kogan, "Chicago Tribune: " "Should be on the reading list of every journalism school and law school in this country." In 1983, Anthony Porter was convicted of the brutal double murder of Marilyn Green and Jerry Hillard. While sitting in the bleachers near Chicago's Washington Park swimming pool, the victims were shot multiple times at point-blank range. Porter was sentenced to death. In 1998, within fifty hours of Porter's scheduled execution, the Illinois Supreme Court granted a stay, pending a hearing on Porter's mental competency. At this point, journalism professor David Protess and his Northwestern University Innocence Project students took up Porter's cause. Soon, Porter was released from prison, and Alstory Simon, then a Milwaukee resident, was convicted of the Washington Park homicides. But that's not the end of the story. Nor is it all of the story. Simon himself has now been exonerated and is suing Northwestern University, David Protess, and two other individuals for more than $40 million in punitive damages. This is the true story of how and why Alstory Simon replaced Anthony Porter in prison.