Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution, and Other Dispatches From the Wrongly Convicted,Used

Extraordinarily powerful stories of ordinary people locked up for crimes they did not commit, and how they were freed against great odds.A nightmare from a thousand Bmovies: a horrible crime is committed in your neighborhood, and the police knock at your door. A witness swears you are the perpetrator; you have no alibi, and no one believes your protestations of innocence. You're convicted, sentenced to hard time in maximum security, or even death row, where you await the executioner's needle.Tragically, this is no movie script but reality for hundreds of American citizens. Our criminal justice system is broken, and people from all walks of life have been destroyed by its failures. But science and a group of incredibly dedicated crusaders are working to repair the damage.In the last ten years, DNA testing has uncovered stonecold proof that sixtyfive completely innocent people have been sent to prison and death row. But even in cases where there is physical evidence, the criminal justice system frees prisoners only after a torturous legal process. Incredibly, according to many trial judges, 'actual innocence' is not grounds for release from prison.At the Innocence Project, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld have helped to free thirtyseven wrongly convicted people, and have taken up the cause of hundreds more. Pulitzer Prizewinning columnist Jim Dwyer has been covering innocence cases for a decade. In Actual Innocence, Scheck, Neufeld, and Dwyer relate the harrowing stories of ten innocent menconvicted by sloppy police work, corrupt prosecutors, jailhouse snitches, mistaken eyewitnesses, and other alltoocommon flaws of the trial systemand tell of the heroic efforts to free them.Intense, startling, and utterly compelling, Actual Innocence is a passionate and fascinating journey through the looking glass of the American criminal justice system.Tragically, this is no movie script but reality for hundreds of American citizens. Our criminal justice system is broken, and people from all walks of life have been destroyed by its failures. But science and a group of incredibly dedicated lawyers are working to repair the damage.In the last decade of this century, DNA testing has uncovered stonecold proof that fiftyfive completely innocent people were sent to prison and death row. At the Innocence Project, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld have managed to free fortythree wrongly convicted people and have taken up the cause of two hundred more. Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Jim Dwyer covered this courthouse revolution from its very first days. In Actual Innocence, Scheck, Neufeld, and Dwyer relate the harrowing stories of ten of these individualsconvicted by sloppy police work, corrupt prosecutors, jailhouse snitches, mistaken witnesses, inept lawyers, and other alltoocommon flaws in the trial systemand tell of the heroic efforts to free them.Intense, harrowing, and compelling, Actual Innocence is a passionate argument for sanity in our courtrooms and a fascinating journey through the looking glass of the American criminal justice system. >