Actual Innocence: When Justice Goes Wrong and How to Make It Right

by Jim Dwyer, Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld

Book Overview

Here are the stories of innocent men and women--and the system that put them away under the guise of justice. Now updated with new information, Actual Innocence sheds light on "a system that tolerates lying prosecutors, slumbering defense attorneys and sloppy investigators" ( Salt Lake Tribune )--revealing the shocking flaws that can derail the legal process and the ways that DNA testing has often shattered so-called solid evidence that condemned...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451209826
• ISBN13: 9780451209825
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: New American Library
• Length: 407 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Must Read

If you are at all involved in the criminal justice system or simply like watching Law & Order, this book is a MUST read. The authors are the founders of the Innocence Project, which strives to exonerate the wrongly convicted. Each chapter examines aspects of "what went wrong" in the convictions of people who are completely innocent. The authors also give detailed accounts of people they have helped to exonerate. As a soon-to-be law school graduate, this book is truly an eye-opener, and will certainly guide me in my future career. It's shocking at how easily the innocent can be (and have been) convicted of heinous crimes, and at how difficult it is for them to gain even a chance to prove their innocence. Again, this book is a must read. It's a quick read, but will undoubtedly leave a lasting impression.

A Terrifying Glimpse Into Real Life Nightmares

Is there anything more frightening then the conviction of an innocent person? It can happen to anyone and this book shows the ineptitude of our legal system and the frequency with which false convictions occur.This book, comprised of a myriad of criminal cases, is one of the most compelling and fast-paced books you will ever read. If it you don't find yourself with a renewed sense of conviction regarding justice and truth in the legal system, then you might consider checking for a pulse. Given the recent advances in pathology, forensics and DNA, "Actual Innocence" should be required reading. Clear and concise, this book will appeal to everyone from housewife to lawyer alike. Truly one of the most important works written in recent years.

Compelling and Chilling

The book details the history of ten cases of men who served years in prison for crimes committed by others, and touches briefly on perhaps a hundred other cases. As human interest, it is compelling. As an insight into the "system" it is chilling.Police lie. Laboratories fudge or falsify forensic tests. Prosecutors withhold exculpatory evidence from the defense, and use testimony they know to be untrustworthy without checking it out. (They haven't done anything wrong unless they *know* it to be false. One prosecutor used the "jailhouse confession" testimony of a witness, even though a man put on death row by similar testimony from that same witness had been exonerated and released.) Governors drag their feet in granting pardons to men whom DNA tests have conclusively proven to be innocent. (A prisoner in Oklahoma remained incarcerated for 6 years after the lab results had exonerated him.)Defense lawyers -- often working for very low pay -- don't bother to challenge prosecution witnesses, or introduce solid alibi witnesses. They sometimes become so miffed at their clients' refusal to accept a plea bargain, they refuse to prepare them for the witness stand, or even talk with them. Only a small sampling of criminal cases involve biological evidence, but it is a fair random sample. DNA exonerations are a window into a system afflicted with very deep rot. The book contains many common sense suggestions for improvement. At the heart of many of them is accountability. Police and prosecutors run essentially no chance of getting caught for fabricating evidence or falsifying testimony. Once convicted and in prison, the defendants are buried there. The system is presumed to have worked properly, and the possibility that the wrongdoing will ever come to light is practically nil. The advent of DNA took the system by surprise, and shined an unexpected light on the rot. Officials were surprised and perhaps embarrassed, despite their pronouncements to the contrary. But prosecutors don't prosecute each other or charge witnesses who have testified for the state. And the law gives broad civil immunity to police and prosecutors. When a building collapses, or a hospital patient undergoes the wrong operation, or an airplane crashes, there is an investigation. People are disciplined and procedures are changed to prevent a recurrence. In the analogous disaster for the criminal justice system -- the wrongful conviction of an innocent person -- the system confidently affirms that it did everything right. We are in the golden age of DNA exonerations. The window is open to public scrutiny and the possibility of reform. But we are approaching the day when we will have exonerated all of the wrongfully imprisoned who can be exonerated by DNA -- everyone whose case evidence has not been degraded, lost, or destroyed. The word is out in the law enforcement community to be on good behavior if a new case is among that small minority where there is biological evidence. As to all

A call for a moratorium on the DP.

A powerful, moving and well-written book. Away from all the moral problems with capital punishment, the Authors are able to focus on legal issues and statistics to show the problems of executing inmates. Many of the research for this book come from The Innocence Project and from the Federal Government, in the form of published reports from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.In brief, this book provides a few stories and they explain how people in this country are wrongly convicted and how scientific evidence, specifically DNA Testing, can help prove their innocence.The book also looks at other sources of problems within the judicial system - Prosecutorial/police misconduct, lazy defense counsels and death-biased juries.This book provides the reader with an educated discussion on the problems of the death penalty. I highly recommend it to everyone and challenge the proponents of the death penalty to read this and look into their own souls to determine if this is a system we want to continue.

Excellent and frightening

Actual Innocence is a very well written, easy to read, and yet frightening book. It covers everyday people whose lives were torn apart by negligence, corruption, human error, and ignorance. Its intensity is driven by the knowledge that these are true stories. After reading the book, I attended a lecture by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld at a law school. Excellent as well! The frightening ascept is that wrongful imprisonment could happen to any one of us. There but for fortune go you or I.