Daily News.
--
Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld and Jim Dwyer are among the United
States' leading experts on innocence issues. Scheck and Neufeld
founded and direct the Innocence Project, which seeks
postconviction release through DNA testing. Perhaps the most
prominent civil rights attorneys in the country, both are in
private practice in New York City. Dwyer, the two-time Pulitzer
Prize-winning columnist for the New York Daily News, began
inquiring into wrongful convictions in 1992. He is also the author
of Subway Lives: 24 Hours in the Life of the New York City
Subway, and co-author of Two Seconds Under the World, an
account of the World Trade Center bombing.
-Actual Innocence is a gut-wrenching, terrifying, hair-raising
account of how fatally wrong things can go inside the American
criminal justice system. But it's also--thank God--a chronicle of
redemption, of how science and a group of dedicated individuals
have exposed those wrongs.-
--Jonathan Harr, Author of A Civil Action
-Actual Innocence is a powerful and illuminating look into the
obscene quagmire of American criminal prosecutions. DNA has at last
provided the key to the jailhouse door for a veritable host of
innocent victims of this system. The book is a great service to
justice.-
--Arthur Miller
-Actual Innocence is a real-life legal thriller, the harrowing
account of ten innocent men wrongfully convicted by a justice
system that too often just doesn't work. Well written and well
researched, this book is like a clarion call alerting us to how
easily corruption, prejudice, laziness, and flat-out stupidity can
cause tragic errors--and how difficult those errors are to correct.
This may be the most important book on American criminal justice in
a decade.-
--William Bernhardt, author of Dark Justice
-Actual Innocence is a remarkably compelling book. Using real-life
stories more horrifyingly gripping than any fiction, the authors
make clear the deep flaws in our criminal justice system, and the
positive difference that is being made by DNA identification
methods whose use [Scheck and Neufeld] pioneered. Telling their
tale clearly and without fanfare, they let the human drama speak
for itself. I couldn't put Actual Innocence down; it's a book
everyone should read.-
--Philip Friedman, author of No Higher Law
"Actual Innocence is a gut-wrenching, terrifying, hair-raising
account of how fatally wrong things can go inside the American
criminal justice system. But it's also--thank God--a chronicle of
redemption, of how science and a group of dedicated individuals
have exposed those wrongs."
--Jonathan Harr, Author of A Civil Action "Actual Innocence is a
powerful and illuminating look into the obscene quagmire of
American criminal prosecutions. DNA has at last provided the key to
the jailhouse door for a veritable host of innocent victims of this
system. The book is a great service to justice."
--Arthur Miller "Actual Innocence is a real-life legal thriller,
the harrowing account of ten innocent men wrongfully convicted by a
justice system that too often just doesn't work. Well written and
well researched, this book is like a clarion call alerting us to
how easily corruption, prejudice, laziness, and flat-out stupidity
can cause tragic errors--and how difficult those errors are to
correct. This may be the most important book on American criminal
justice in a decade."
--William Bernhardt, author of Dark Justice "Actual Innocence is a
remarkably compelling book. Using real-life stories more
horrifyingly gripping than any fiction, the authors make clear the
deep flaws in our criminal justice system, and the positive
difference that is being made by DNA identification methods whose
use [Scheck and Neufeld] pioneered. Telling their tale clearly and
without fanfare, they let the human drama speak for itself. I
couldn't put Actual Innocence down; it's a book everyone should
read."
--Philip Friedman, author of No Higher Law
Scheck gained celebrity for his role in the defense of O.J. Simpson and the "nanny trial" of Louise Woodward. But most of his cases are unsung, and usually he gets involved later on, after a verdict of guilty has been handed down. He and partner Neufeld founded the Innocence Project to aid those who have been wrongly convicted--a failure of justice that occurs with frightening frequency, as documented in this startling expose. The Innocence Project alone has helped 43 wrongfully convicted persons--one was actually on death row for 12 years--gain their freedom, primarily through the use of new DNA techniques, which can be applied to old evidence (blood or, in the case of rape, semen). What Scheck, Neufeld and Pulitzer-winning Daily News columnist Dwyer offer here is a report on the many ways justice can go astray and an innocent person be convicted. Perhaps one of the more shocking of their revelations is the unreliability of eyewitness testimony; in addition to studies and statistics, they present a case in which three eyewitnesses separately identified the defendant as a rapist/robber: evidence uncovered by Scheck and Neufeld eventually exonerated him. Scheck and Neufeld offer a litany of such errors, along with detailed case histories: false "confessions," fraudulent lab results, junk science (particularly the use of hair typing as evidence), prosecutorial misconduct and inadequate defense lawyering have all led to convictions of the innocent. The authors offer concrete advice on how these dangers can be minimized (e.g., videotaping all police interrogations to ensure confessions aren't forced). This is an alarming wake-up call to those who administer our justice system that serious flaws must be addressed to protect the innocent. Literary Guild featured selection. (Feb.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
-Actual Innocence is a gut-wrenching, terrifying,
hair-raising account of how fatally wrong things can go inside the
American criminal justice system. But it's also--thank God--a
chronicle of redemption, of how science and a group of dedicated
individuals have exposed those wrongs.-
--Jonathan Harr, Author of A Civil Action
-Actual Innocence is a powerful and illuminating look into
the obscene quagmire of American criminal prosecutions. DNA has at
last provided the key to the jailhouse door for a veritable host of
innocent victims of this system. The book is a great service to
justice.-
--Arthur Miller
-Actual Innocence is a real-life legal thriller, the
harrowing account of ten innocent men wrongfully convicted by a
justice system that too often just doesn't work. Well written and
well researched, this book is like a clarion call alerting us to
how easily corruption, prejudice, laziness, and flat-out stupidity
can cause tragic errors--and how difficult those errors are to
correct. This may be the most important book on American criminal
justice in a decade.-
--William Bernhardt, author of Dark Justice
-Actual Innocence is a remarkably compelling book. Using
real-life stories more horrifyingly gripping than any fiction, the
authors make clear the deep flaws in our criminal justice system,
and the positive difference that is being made by DNA
identification methods whose use [Scheck and Neufeld] pioneered.
Telling their tale clearly and without fanfare, they let the human
drama speak for itself. I couldn't put Actual Innocence
down; it's a book everyone should read.-
--Philip Friedman, author of No Higher Law
"Actual Innocence is a gut-wrenching, terrifying,
hair-raising account of how fatally wrong things can go inside the
American criminal justice system. But it's also--thank God--a
chronicle of redemption, of how science and a group of dedicated
individuals have exposed those wrongs."
--Jonathan Harr, Author of A Civil Action
"Actual Innocence is a powerful and illuminating look
into the obscene quagmire of American criminal prosecutions. DNA
has at last provided the key to the jailhouse door for a veritable
host of innocent victims of this system. The book is a great
service to justice."
--Arthur Miller "Actual Innocence is a real-life legal
thriller, the harrowing account of ten innocent men wrongfully
convicted by a justice system that too often just doesn't work.
Well written and well researched, this book is like a clarion call
alerting us to how easily corruption, prejudice, laziness, and
flat-out stupidity can cause tragic errors--and how difficult those
errors are to correct. This may be the most important book on
American criminal justice in a decade."
--William Bernhardt, author of Dark Justice "Actual
Innocence is a remarkably compelling book. Using real-life
stories more horrifyingly gripping than any fiction, the authors
make clear the deep flaws in our criminal justice system, and the
positive difference that is being made by DNA identification
methods whose use [Scheck and Neufeld] pioneered. Telling their
tale clearly and without fanfare, they let the human drama speak
for itself. I couldn't put Actual Innocence down; it's a
book everyone should read."
--Philip Friedman, author of No Higher Law
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