Actual Innocence

Actual Innocence

Author: Jim Dwyer

Publisher: Doubleday Books

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 314

ISBN-13: 038549341X

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Ten true tales of people falsely accused detail the flaws in the criminal justice system that landed these people in prison


Execution of Innocence

Execution of Innocence

Author: Christopher Pike

Publisher: Turtleback

Published: 1997-01

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780613015165

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Sharing a love that most people envy, Charlie and Mary find their lives shattered when Mary is unfaithful and Charlie turns murderous, a situation that has Charlie on the run and Mary ostracized by her peers.


The Death of Innocents

The Death of Innocents

Author: Helen Prejean

Publisher: Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9781853116827

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Sr Helen Prejean has accompanied five men to execution since she began her work in 1982. She believes the last two, Dobie Williams in Louisiana and Joseph O'Dell in Virginia, were innocent, but their juries were blocked from seeing all the evidence and their defence teams were incompetent. 'The readers of this book will be the first "jury" with access to all the evidence the trail juries never saw', she says. The Death of Innocents shows how race, prosecutorial ambition, poverty and publicity determine who dies and who lives. Prejean raises profound constitutional questions about the legality of the death penalty.


The Corruption of Innocence

The Corruption of Innocence

Author: Lori St John

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780989040129

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How did the wife of a prominent surgeon find herself at the death chamber battling the American justice system with the Pope and Mother Teresa in her corner? Lori St John's firebrand, fearless personality is behind this true story of a woman's unwavering determination to expose the truth in a dangerous game of judicial power. In a volunteer position reviewing cases of wrongful conviction, Lori's world is turned upside down when she is assigned the death row case of Joseph O'Dell. Joe is scheduled to die for the brutal rape and murder of a Virginia Beach secretary. But Lori's investigation uncovers lies, the intimidation of witnesses and a trial by am- bush in a system so corrupt she begins to fear for her own life. Her story of turmoil and dangerous choices brings her face-to- face with the jailhouse snitch and Joe's alibi witness. She's determined to find the real killer. Undeterred by the government, Lori brings the world to stand witness to the in- justice she's unearthed, and drives her mission to become a cause c


The Wrong Carlos

The Wrong Carlos

Author: James S. Liebman

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2014-07-08

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 0231167237

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In 1989, Texas executed Carlos DeLuna, a poor Hispanic man with childlike intelligence, for the murder of Wanda Lopez, a convenience store clerk. His execution passed unnoticed for years until a team of Columbia Law School faculty and students almost accidentally chose to investigate his case and found that DeLuna almost certainly was innocent. They discovered that no one had cared enough about either the defendant or the victim to make sure the real perpetrator was found. Everything that could go wrong in a criminal case did. This book documents DeLunaÕs conviction, which was based on a single, nighttime, cross-ethnic eyewitness identification with no corroborating forensic evidence. At his trial, DeLunaÕs defense, that another man named Carlos had committed the crime, was not taken seriously. The lead prosecutor told the jury that the other Carlos, Carlos Hernandez, was a ÒphantomÓ of DeLunaÕs imagination. In upholding the death penalty on appeal, both the state and federal courts concluded the same thing: Carlos Hernandez did not exist. The evidence the Columbia team uncovered reveals that Hernandez not only existed but was well known to the police and prosecutors. He had a long history of violent crimes similar to the one for which DeLuna was executed. Families of both Carloses mistook photos of each for the other, and HernandezÕs violence continued after DeLuna was put to death. This book and its website (thewrongcarlos.net) reproduce law-enforcement, crime lab, lawyer, court, social service, media, and witness records, as well as court transcripts, photographs, radio traffic, and audio and videotaped interviews, documenting one of the most comprehensive investigations into a criminal case in U.S. history. The result is eye-opening yet may not be unusual. Faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation, and prosecutorial misfeasance continue to put innocent people at risk of execution. The principal investigators conclude with novel suggestions for improving accuracy among the police, prosecutors, forensic scientists, and judges.


I Am Troy Davis

I Am Troy Davis

Author: Jen Marlowe

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2013-08-19

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 1608462951

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The true story of a woman’s fight for her brother’s life—and her own: “Essential for those interested in the U.S. justice system” (Library Journal). On September 21, 2011, Troy Anthony Davis was put to death by the State of Georgia. Davis’s execution was protested by hundreds of thousands of people across the globe, and Pope Benedict XVI, Pres. Jimmy Carter, and fifty-one members of Congress all appealed for clemency. Davis’s older sister, Martina, a former Army flight nurse who had served in the Gulf War, was one of Davis’s strongest advocates—despite the fact that she was battling liver and metastatic breast cancer and died just weeks after her brother’s death by lethal injection. This book, coauthored by Martina and writer Jen Marlowe, tells the intimate story of an ordinary man caught up in an inexorable tragedy. From his childhood in racially charged Savannah; to the confused events that led to the 1989 shooting of a police officer; to Davis’s sudden arrest, conviction, and two-decade fight to prove his innocence, I Am Troy Davis takes us inside a broken legal system where life and death hang in the balance. It is also an inspiring testament to the unbreakable bond of family and the resilience of love, and reminds us that even when you reach the end of justice, voices from across the world can rise together in chorus and proclaim, “I am Troy Davis.” “Martina Correia’s heroic fight to save her brother’s life while battling for her own serves as a powerful testament for activists.” —The Nation “Should be read and cherished.” —Maya Angelou, author and civil rights activist


Right Here, Right Now

Right Here, Right Now

Author: Lynden Harris

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2021-03-22

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 147802142X

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Upon receiving his execution date, one of the thousands of men living on death row in the United States had an epiphany: “All there ever is, is this moment. You, me, all of us, right here, right now, this minute, that's love.” Right Here, Right Now collects the powerful, first-person stories of dozens of men on death rows across the country. From childhood experiences living with poverty, hunger, and violence to mental illness and police misconduct to coming to terms with their executions, these men outline their struggle to maintain their connection to society and sustain the humanity that incarceration and its daily insults attempt to extinguish. By offering their hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears, failures, and wounds, the men challenge us to reconsider whether our current justice system offers actual justice or simply perpetuates the social injustices that obscure our shared humanity.


The Innocent Man

The Innocent Man

Author: John Grisham

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2010-03-16

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 0307576019

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 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 John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction: a true crime masterpiece that tells the story of small town justice gone terribly awry. In the Major League draft of 1971, the first player chosen from the state of Oklahoma was Ron Williamson. When he signed with the Oakland A’s, he said goodbye to his hometown of Ada and left to pursue his dreams of big league glory. Six years later he was back, his dreams broken by a bad arm and bad habits. He began to show signs of mental illness. Unable to keep a job, he moved in with his mother and slept twenty hours a day on her sofa. In 1982, a twenty-one-year-old cocktail waitress in Ada named Debra Sue Carter was raped and murdered, and for five years the police could not solve the crime. For reasons that were never clear, they suspected Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. The two were finally arrested in 1987 and charged with capital murder. With no physical evidence, the prosecution’s case was built on junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snitches and convicts. Dennis Fritz was found guilty and given a life sentence. Ron Williamson was sent to death row. If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you. Don’t miss Framed, John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction since The Innocent Man, co-authored with Centurion Ministries founder Jim McCloskey.


Trials of Walter Ogrod

Trials of Walter Ogrod

Author: Thomas Lowenstein

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Published: 2017-04-01

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 1613738048

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This engrossing investigation into the tragic 1988 murder of four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn and its aftermath leads readers through the facts of the case in compelling, compassionate, and riveting fashion. Award-winning journalist Thomas Lowenstein makes an evenhanded case for the wrongful conviction of Walter Ogrod, a man with autism spectrum disorder who has been on death row since 1996. Informed by police records, court transcripts, interviews, letters and journals, and more, Lowenstein relates how Ogrod was convicted based solely on a confession he signed after 36 hours without sleep and how his fate was sealed by an infamous jailhouse snitch. Presenting explosive new evidence, Lowenstein exposes a larger pattern of prosecutorial misconduct in Philadelphia.


The Execution of Willie Francis

The Execution of Willie Francis

Author: Gilbert King

Publisher: Civitas Books

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13:

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The inspiration behind "A Lesson Before Dying" meets the best of John Grisham as a young Cajun lawyer fights to save a black teenager from the electric chair. 16-page b&w photo insert.