Convicting the Innocent : Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong / Brandon Garrett.
2011
KF9756 .G37 2012
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Details
Title
Convicting the Innocent : Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong / Brandon Garrett.
Author
Garrett, Brandon, author.
ISBN
9780674060982
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2011]
Copyright
©2011
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (376 p.) : 18 graphs
Other Standard Identifiers
10.4159/harvard.9780674060982 doi
Call Number
KF9756 .G37 2012
Dewey Decimal Classification
345.73064
Summary
On January 20, 1984, Earl Washington-defended for all of forty minutes by a lawyer who had never tried a death penalty case-was found guilty of rape and murder in the state of Virginia and sentenced to death. After nine years on death row, DNA testing cast doubt on his conviction and saved his life. However, he spent another eight years in prison before more sophisticated DNA technology proved his innocence and convicted the guilty man.DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free. In this unsettling in-depth analysis, Brandon Garrett examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 wrongfully convicted people to be exonerated by DNA testing.Based on trial transcripts, Garrett's investigation into the causes of wrongful convictions reveals larger patterns of incompetence, abuse, and error. Evidence corrupted by suggestive eyewitness procedures, coercive interrogations, unsound and unreliable forensics, shoddy investigative practices, cognitive bias, and poor lawyering illustrates the weaknesses built into our current criminal justice system. Garrett proposes practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence, and less on fallible human memory. Very few crimes committed in the United States involve biological evidence that can be tested using DNA. How many unjust convictions are there that we will never discover? Convicting the Innocent makes a powerful case for systemic reforms to improve the accuracy of all criminal cases.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)
In
E-BOOK GESAMTPAKET / COMPLETE PACKAGE 2011
E-BOOK PACKAGE ENGLISH LANGUAGES TITLES 2011
E-BOOK PAKET RECHTSWISSENSCHAFTEN 2011
HUP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013 (Canada)
Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
E-BOOK PACKAGE ENGLISH LANGUAGES TITLES 2011
E-BOOK PAKET RECHTSWISSENSCHAFTEN 2011
HUP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013 (Canada)
Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Contaminated Confessions
Chapter 3. Eyewitness Misidentifications
Chapter 4. Flawed Forensics
Chapter 5. Trial by Liar
Chapter 6. Innocence on Trial
Chapter 7. Judging Innocence
Chapter 8. Exoneration
Chapter 9. Reforming the Criminal Justice System
Appendix
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Contaminated Confessions
Chapter 3. Eyewitness Misidentifications
Chapter 4. Flawed Forensics
Chapter 5. Trial by Liar
Chapter 6. Innocence on Trial
Chapter 7. Judging Innocence
Chapter 8. Exoneration
Chapter 9. Reforming the Criminal Justice System
Appendix
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index