"… Dispatches from the wrongly convicted"

"Actual Innocence: Five Days To Execution, And Other Dispatches From The Wrongly Convicted." Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, Jim Dwyer, Doubleday, 2000, 298 pages.

On Jan. 31, Governor George Ryan declared a suspension of the application of the death penalty in the state of Illinois. Ryan was quoted in the Feb. 1 edition of the Chicago Tribune as saying, "Until I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois is truly guilty…no one will meet that fate." This controversial topic is the focus of a new book on the wrongful application of prison sentences and the death penalty in the United States.

"Actual Innocence" is one of the latest publications to explore this problem in our country. Attorneys Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld have teamed up with Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jim Dwyer to write a searing indictment of our criminal justice system by documenting no less than 37 cases that have inaccurately rendered a guilty verdict against the wrong person.

The inspiration for the book comes from the work of the Innocence Project, a pro bono organization founded by Scheck and Neufeld. The Innocence Project seeks to investigate the suspicious verdict of guilt in seemingly open-and-shut criminal court cases. Combining the latest advancements in science (specifically DNA testing) with a resolute determination to discover the truth, Scheck and Neufeld’s Innocence Project has been influential in having the wrongful convictions of these 37 people overturned.

 

 

This book is based on the actual stories of 10 innocent men—men who were convicted "by sloppy police work, corrupt prosecutors, jailhouse snitches, mistaken eyewitnesses and other all-too-common flaws of the trial system." Each chapter is an illustration of these flaws and their effect on the trial of the accused. In the chapter entitled "Junk Science," erroneous testing and poor interpretation of hair and sperm samples taken from a suspect led to a conviction and sentence of 3,200 years. In this case the Innocence Project disproved the validity and accuracy of the scientific evidence presented against the defendant, and he was released after serving five years of his sentence. The authors state that "junk science had ruined him, topping the 11 alibi witnesses who swore they saw Tim Durham 300 miles away."

 

 

 

Other true-life cases of wrongful conviction are graphically detailed in chapters such as "False Confessions," "Sleeping Lawyers" and "Race." Throughout the entire ordeal of the falsely accused, the persistence of the Innocence Project is evident as it seeks to reverse a terrible injustice.

This book will find a wide audience of readers. Fans of true crime stories and those who enjoy legal suspense thrillers will find the book difficult to put down. Anyone who is interested in the problems associated with the American judicial system will find the book thought provoking and at the same time disturbing. The authors have made a compelling case for reform in our trial system, reform that is needed to insure that innocent people are not wrongfully imprisoned or executed in this country. "Actual Innocence" should generate considerable discussion in the coming months on false imprisonment and the application of the death penalty in the United States.

For more information, visit the library at 725 Pekin St. or call 732-8878.

[Richard Sumrall,
Lincoln Public Library District]

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