Wrongly Convicted: Perspectives on Failed Justice / Edition 1

by Saundra D. Westervelt, John A Humphrey, Michael L Radelet

Overview

The American criminal justice system contains numerous safeguards to prevent the conviction of innocent persons. The Bill of Rights provides nineteen separate rights for the alleged criminal offender, including the right to effective legal representation and the right to be judged without regard to race or creed. Despite these safeguards, wrongful convictions persist, and the issue has reverberated in the national debate over capital punishment.

The essays in this volume are written from a cross-disciplinary perspective by some of the most eminent lawyers, criminologists, and social scientists in the field today. The articles are divided into four sections: the causes of wrongful convictions, the social characteristics of the wrongly convicted, case studies and personal histories, and suggestions for changes in the criminal justice system to prevent wrongful convictions. Contributors examine a broad range of issues, including the fallibility of eyewitness testimony, particularly in cross-racial identifications; the disadvantages faced by racial and ethnic minorities in the criminal justice system; and the impact of new technologies, especially DNA evidence, in freeing the innocent and bringing the guilty to justice. The book also asks such questions as: What legal characteristics do wrongful convictions share? What are the mechanisms that defendants and their attorneys use to overturn wrongful convictions? The book also provides case studies that offer specific examples of what can and does go wrong in the criminal justice system.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813529523
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2001
Series:	Critical Issues in Crime and Society
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	301
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

SAUNDRA D. WESTERVELT is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is author of Shifting the Blame: How Victimization Became a Criminal Defense (Rutgers University Press). 

JOHN A. HUMPHREY is a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and coauthor of Deviant Behavior and The Administration of Justice.

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1

Part I: Causes of Wrongful Conditions
1 Misinformation and Wrongful Convictions 17
2 False Confessions 36
3 From the Jailhouse to the Courthouse 55
4 The Police Role in Wrongful Convictions 77

Part II: The Social Characteristics of the Wrongly Convicted
5 Who Are the Wrongly Convicted on Death Row? 99
6 Racial Bias and the Conviction of the Innocent

Part III: The Faces of the Wrongly Convicted
7 More Than a Reasonable Doubt 135
8 No Appeal from the Grave 154
9 Whodunit? An Examination of the Production of Wrongful Convictions 174

Part IV: Visions for Change in the Twenty-first Century
10 Back from the Courthouse 199
11 Effective Assistance of Counsel 220
12 DNA and Innocence Scholarship 241
13 The Adversary System and Historical Accuracy 253
14 Erroneous Convictions and the Death Penalty 269

About the editors and contributors 281
Index 289

Editorial Reviews

The contributors to this collection discuss the many ways in which innocent criminal defendants can be convicted in a system that places great emphasis on protecting them. Some involve culpability: brutal or racially biased police and other officials, treacherous informants, and incompetent attorneys. . . . Recommended for upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty.

Choice

A very powerful addition to the debate on capital punishment.

author of Fixing Broken Windows - George Kelling

An all-star set of contributors and clearly written essays make this a worthwhile addition to anti-death penalty literature. Sociology professors at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Westervelt (Shifting the Blame) and Humphrey take a practical approach to the topic. Essays in Part 1 show that eyewitnesses are often wrong, police trick suspects into making confessions, informants lie to gain benefits, and police can be incompetent or venal. Part 2 argues that those who are unpopular, uneducated, or members of a racial minority invite harsher treatment by authorities. The next section offers case studies on convictions that were wrongly obtained, followed by suggestions for changes in the criminal justice system, such as more active judges, an "innocence commission" to examine convictions, liberal use of DNA evidence, and better training for lawyers. The book is more accessible than contributor Hugo Adam Bedau's The Death Penalty in America (LJ 3/15/97), the standard work in the field, and more pragmatic than Austin Sarat's When the State Kills (LJ 4/1/01), which attacks the death penalty from a philosophical and moral perspective. This excellent introduction to a controversial topic is highly recommended. Harry Charles, Attorney at Law, St. Louis Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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