Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated [Paperback]

Dave Eggers (Compiler), Lola Vollen (Compiler), Scott Turow (Introduction)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1932416234 | ISBN-13: 978-1932416237 | Publication Date: November 25, 2005

Beverly Monroe spent seven years in prison for murdering her companion of thirteen years; even though he had killed himself. Christopher Ochoa was persuaded to confess to a rape and murder he did not commit, and served twelve years of his life sentence before being freed by DNA evidence. Michael Evans and Paul Terry each served twenty-seven years in prison for a rape and murder they did not commit. They were teenagers when they entered prison and middle-aged when DNA proved their innocence.

After spending years behind bars, hundreds of men and women with incontrovertible proof of their innocence have been released from America’s prisons. They were wrongfully convicted because of problems that plague many criminal proceedings—inept defense lawyers, overzealous prosecutors, deceitful interrogation tactics, misidentifications, and more. Finally free, usually after more than a decade of incarceration, the wrongly condemned re-enter society with nothing but scars from prison life only to struggle for survival on the outside.

The thirteen men and women portrayed here, and the hundreds of others who have been exonerated, are the tip of the iceberg. By all estimates, there are thousands of innocent victims in prison today. Surviving Justice tells their unimaginable and inspiring stories.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: McSweeney's (November 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932416234
• ISBN-13: 978-1932416237
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening, anxiety inducing, and necessary, February 23, 2006

By 

Paul Ramon (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated (Paperback)

This book is a must read for anyone who has their doubts about the justice system in this country. As an American citizen we're taught to have faith in our government -- local, state, etc.-- and that things like wrongful conviction only happen in the movies or to someone who happens to look strikingly like the perpetrator and was in the vicinity of the crime when it occured. Thirteen innocent individuals spent years in prison for crimes they did not commit. They had significant portions of their lives ripped away by the state and it's cronies with a desire to punish the person responsible, they just felt that the person responsible was........anyone really. Case closed, next!

Don't get me wrong, the justice system, as any system, is fallible, but I was not aware of its malevolence. The tactics used by those who "serve and protect" to coerce false confessions and identifications -- even from a 13 year-old rape victim-- to "get their man" is the most disturbing facet of the book. Beverly Monroe was convicted of murdering her companion after the death was ruled a suicide by the coroner's dept. Through the assistance of a state police agent she was manipulated and dare I say, forced into confessing to a murder that wasn't even a murder, and subsequently spent seven years in prison.

The book is very well put together, through it's various appendices it offers statistics about the plague of wrongful convictions in the past few decades and the rise in exonerations through DNA eveidence, along with case studies and legal documentation. In summation, this book is a must read for everyone who cares about their rights as a citizen. It illuminates the problems underlying the American justice and legal systems with a white light in hopes that we'll notice the glare.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surviving Justice, May 19, 2006

By 

Jill Cobb (wichita, Kansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated (Paperback)

Once this book is started, it is nearly impossible to put it down. It is a "must" read for everyone who lives in the USA. Technically it is an easy read, but emotionally it is a roller coaster as we track people who were wrongfully incarcerated, some for many years, to the time that they were exonerated. As a person who is closely associated with the criminal justice system, I recommend that this book be read by all lawyers, police investigators and by forensic pathologists. It may change your outlook on the death penalty and the validity of the "presumption of innocense". When you finish this book you will bless the day that DNA evidence came into existance and become thankful for those who never lose faith in a wrongly convicted.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated, March 24, 2006

By 

Michelle R. Monroe "Political Activist for Ju... (Newark, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated (Paperback)

Interested in hearing (in first person) the stories (always painful, sometimes truly horrific) of those whom our legal system has failed? The foreword by Scott Turow provides an honest and compelling account of the increasing numbers of individuals for whom jurisprudence in this country is lost in illegal arrest procedures, faulty investigations, less than credible witnesses, inaccurate forensic evidence, unconstitutional treatment, and lynch-style trial proceedings in order to secure convictions.

The stories in this book of the men and women who were wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit will force you to question why our legal system is "flailing and failing" so many individuals.

All of us can glean much wisdom from this book, as most of these individuals believed {as we do} that "it can never happen to me."

Michelle Monroe