The Wrong Men: America's Epidemic of Wrongful Death Row Convictions

by Stanley Cohen

Book Overview

In January 2000, Illinois Governor George H. Ryan declared a moratorium on state executions. Three years later, Ryan commuted all Illinois death sentences to life imprisonment, saying, "Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error, error in determining guilt, and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die." This book chronicles over one hundred cases where journalism students, grassroots organizations, families, and pro bono...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786712589
• ISBN13: 9780786712588
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 3.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Three Florida cases: Jerry Rogers, Roy Swafford, and Peter Ventura

Jerry Layne Rogers, Sr. -- wrongfully convicted and innocent. From 1989 - 1992, I was his investigator at CCR. Mr. Rogers' case consisted in 1992 of at least 80 boxes of documents, from court files, prosecutor and law enforcement files, trial and evidentiary hearing transcripts, etc. Mr. Rogers's case was the largest and most complicated that CCR [The Office of Capital Collateral Representative -- a state agency in the judicial branch of Florida government] has ever represented that I am aware of. The second largest and most complicated was that of Mr. Gerald Stano, whose lead attorney during most of the development of his case was Mark E. Olive. In 1995, Mr. Rogers began receiving pro bono representation from the Washington, D.C. law firm Covington and Burling. The result was an unanimous Florida Supreme Court (FSC) 26 page opinion ordering a new trial in Mr. Rogers' case due primarily to prosecutorial misconduct, in particular Brady v. Maryland violations. To read the opinion, go to the FSC website, then at "Public Information", to the recent opinions, to the year 2001, then toward the bottom at February 15, 2001, one will find the FSC opinion. During the summer of 2002, Mr. Rogers was re-convicted, however sentenced to life upon the jury recommendation. Now twice Mr. Rogers has been wrongfully convicted. In 2004, the Florida 5th District Court of Appeal denied relief. The FSC declined to accept jurisdiction and thus denied the petition for review. Mr. Rogers' case is pending Federal review. For those interested in reading the narrowly decided by four to three vote Florida Supreme Court opinions regarding two more death sentenced persons whose innocence is an authentic issue, please go to the FSC website, then go to the recent opinions, then chose the correct year and scroll down to the following two cases: Roy Swafford: April 18, 2002 Peter Ventura: May 24, 2001 Additionally, the issue in the below cases is DNA testing that proves that Roy Swafford did not rape Brenda Rucker: Roy Swafford: March 26, 2004 Case Nos. SC03.931 and SC03.1153

A Must Read - Even If You're Pro-death Penalty, Like Me!

I live in Indiana, very close to the border with Illinois. Our local news comes out of Chicago, Illinois, and since a large portion of the stories included in this non-fiction novel took place in the "Land of Lincoln" I was very familiar with a lot of the cases. As I state in my title of this review, I am pro-death penalty. But I believe this book proves that our judicial system needs to improve greatly. The stories in this book are proof that there are flaws in the system - as I believe there will always be, in any system. The problem is that in many of these cases common sense should have stopped a wrongful conviction. It didn't, and Stanley Cohen does a fantastic job of pointing that out. Now, why am I still pro-death penalty. Because I believe, as long as America allows the murder of the most innocent human life (a child in the womb), our justice system should be allowed to dole out the most harshest punishment available for the act of murder on those outside the womb. Elaborating on this - in Cohen's book he uses a quote from Clarence Darrow: "There isn't, I submit, a single admissible argument in favor of capital punishment. Nature loves life. We believe that life should be protected and preserved. The thing which keeps one from killing is the emotion they have against it; and the greater sanctity that the state pays to life, the greater the feeling of sanctity the individual has for life." I couldn't agree more. And I look forward to the day when anti-death penalty activists line up outside abortion clinics with their message of supporting the sanctity of life. The day I see this happening, I will join the Stanley Cohen's of the world and march with them outside a scheduled execution, protesting the extreme punishment. Cohen, feel free to take me up on this, if you dare. All that aside, Stanley Cohen's book is packed with a lot of great reading. I can't imagine the pain and suffering a person wrongly convicted must endure, and of course, reading this book is not going to make me understand how it feels. But I can say it has opened my eyes to how blatantly wrong many of these prosecutions have been handled. This book is also written in a rapid-fire manner, that you almost have to take a break from every so often. I tried to remind myself that most of time, the death penalty is not given to innocent men. But then I had to remind myself, just once, and the horror for that one is enough. I plan on reading this book through again. I find most non-fiction books to be a boring read, but Cohen is a great writer - he manages to never bore the reader, and makes a brilliant presentation in this book. It amazes me that there are not hundreds of reviews posted here. This book should be a TOP TEN BESTSELLER! Just another example of how hype and timing play into that list. Buy this book no matter what side of the aisle you're on. It is a MUST READ. Have I mentioned that yet? See ya next review.

Overwhelming evidence of innocence on death row

I enjoyed this book immensely. It is about persons sent to death row to await execution, but who were later set free due to mistakes in our judicial systems. The book includes several examples of public servants who serve their own interests by lying and sending innocent people to death row. One story that stands out for me: Earl Charles was convicted for a double murder that took place in 1974 in Savannah, Georgia while he was living and working in Tampa, Florida. According to evidence described in the book, it is apparent that Detective F.W.Wade used perjury and coercion to get the conviction. The thing that saved Charles was that his boss, the manager of a gasoline service station, did not trust him. The boss had asked a deputy sheriff to look in on him from time to time which he did. The sheriff also kept a log which showed that Charles was at work on the day of the murders. When Charles was convicted and sentenced to the electric chair, his former employer and the deputy sheriff came to his rescue at the request of Charles' mother. His conviction was vacated and he was set free after spending 3 years awaiting execution.The book also contains examples of people who were set free who probably were guilty in reality. Consequently, additional light is shed on how and why our legal system fails. When guilty criminals go free on technicalities, police are motivated to try harder the next time - even to the point of fabricating evidence so as to win instead of lose. The book also concludes that while many innocent people have been freed from death row it is mathematically probable that a high number of innocent people have been executed. At times I found it depressing. Mitigating my depression was the fact that woven throughout are heroes who stood up for the truth.The book was sketchy in places. 101 people are freed from death row in 290 pages. That's about 3 pages per person. I would have liked to see a little more depth to rate it 5 stars. Still, there are so many cases, the book has value a reference. It also serves well the notion that these occurrences are not extraordinary, made-for-TV, examples. They happen repeatedly in many states. You have to read it to believe it. The book also demonstrates that our system for capital punishment in the U.S. is still broken as of this writing.