30 April 2015 OVERTURNING WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS: SCIENCE SERVING JUSTICE by Elizabeth A. Murray, PhD, Twenty-First Century Books, January 2015, 120p., 978-1-4677-2513-2

“Yes, here’s the story of the Hurricane

The man the authorities came to blame

For somethin’ that he never done

Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world”

-- Bob Dylan (1975)

“It is impossible to know how many innocent people are sitting in prison at this moment. Studies suggest that around 2 to 5 percent of all US inmates did not commit the crimes for which they were convicted. That translates to approximately 40,000 to 100,000 people currently unjustly behind bars in the United States alone. This statistic also means that the vast majority of people in prison do belong there.

“The focus of most attempts to exonerate people who have been falsely convicted is on the worst offenses, such as murder and rape. These crimes carry the stiffest sentences, sometimes including the death penalty. For that reason, the majority of innocent people who have been convicted of less serious crimes will never be cleared.”

OVERTURNING WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS is an excellent introductory guide to the workings of the American judicial system. What makes it a stand-out read that is so interesting (and horrifying) is that it focuses attention on the many cases where the system does not operate properly.

When it comes to report cards at school, ninety-five or ninety eight percent is a grade to be proud of. But when it comes to the justice system, this percentage is clearly not satisfactory. Suppose that you or someone close to you was among those 2 to 5 percent wrongly arrested, convicted, and sentenced to years in prison or even death. The system’s getting it right most of the time is not good enough.

Knowing there is a 2 to 5 percent chance that a convict is innocent, can you support use of the death penalty?

In OVERTURNING WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS, forensic scientist and author Elizabeth Murray provides an in-depth look at the role of science in today’s legal system. She writes about the Innocence Project and other organizations that use DNA testing to ferret out and correct some of the judicial system’s convictions of innocent people.

How does the system go awry? Let me count the ways.

Eyewitnesses make mistakes.

Elizabeth Murray details eye-opening experiments that have been conducted about the fallibility of eyewitness accounts. Studies conducted by the Innocence Project on successful DNA exonerations have concluded that “almost 75 percent of those wrongful convictions were due to faulty eyewitness testimony.” She explains how psychological experiments have shown that there is rapid loss of critical details in the short-term memories of test subjects.

Police behave immorally and illegally.

The author shares story after story about wrongful convictions that were obtained in part through police trickery, torture, and purposely hiding evidence that proves innocence and would lead to acquittal.

Some judges behave immorally and illegally.

Some forensic experts botch up tests, falsify results, lie about results, or withhold evidence. The author’s writing about a now-former forensic scientist in Oklahoma City who was responsible for the conviction of an untold number of innocent people might have been the most shocking part of the book for me. 

Some attorneys are exceptionally incompetent.

Knowing that the system regularly goes awry, leading to the conviction of tens of thousands of innocent people in America, how can one justify the use of the death penalty? It would be a horrible nightmare to have been one of the Central Park Five who spent a dozen years in prison for a crime they did not commit. But at least they still had some living to do when their innocence was revealed. There is no question that innocent people have been executed because of faulty eyewitness accounts, illegal police tactics, lousy lawyers, and bogus expert witnesses.

OVERTURNING WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS highlights an important problem in the US judicial system. I had no idea of the extent to which the problem exists. A lot of tweens and teens will be both startled and moved by these true stories of innocent people who have lost decades of their lives thanks to the failures of the system.

Richie Partington, MLIS

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