Customer Reviews

Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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

Let me add my words to the chorus of praise that accompanies this amazing, engrossing, infuriating book. Thirteen people slammed into prison due to poor or nearly nonexistent defense, overzealous prosecution, junk science and cockeyed local politics tell their stories as oral history. The narrators talk in the first person and range through the socioeconomic spectrum from a semi-nomadic, illiterate Puerto Rican immigrant to a well salaried professional engaged in research at a large corporation.

Their testimony is not always grammatical, but it is articulate, even eloquent. These persons spent completely unnecessary terms in prison ranging from three years to 25 years, and they most likely would still be there if not for DNA testing and the patient work of the Innocence Project, which specializes in such cases.

How dare we feel superior to 19th-Century fictive prisoners like the Count of Monte Cristo or Jean Valjean (Les Miserables)? Right here in the USA, these our fellow citizens have suffered torturous police interrogations, brutal guards, inedible food, nonexistent or poor medical care, indifferent "justice" bureaucracies and predatory inmate populations. For no reason whatsoever. Even the luckiest and best-situated of these people were bankrupted by expensive DNA testing, their lives interrupted in young adulthood or middle age, with little if any money compensation given to them on the way out.

In my opinion this is THE book to start with regarding innocent convicts, but there are other good ones, too, particularly ACTUAL INNOCENCE by the three men most associated with The Innocence Project. Truly, it is frightening what can happen here in this country with our alleged "bias toward defendants." Basically the authorities railroaded people when and how they pleased with no regard to consequences. And it has stayed that way.

This should be compulsory reading for all jurists, and citzenship-seeking immigrants, and, well, everyone.
The assumption that "where there's smoke, there's fire" must be erased from our brains, and this is just the book to prove it.

My thoughts and prayers are with the victims portrayed in "Surviving Justice" and their families.

This book should not be viewed as a "Liberal versus Conservative" book, although the majority of writers in this collective work do advocate abolishing the Death Penalty.

While, I, for one, would not go that far, I most definitely feel, after having just finished this inspiring and, at the same time, disturbing book, that the Death Penalty has been abused and overused by many states.

As a Virginian I am VERY disturbed at how Virginia may have, in fact, executed at least one innocent person, and how the former Atty General of my state, Mary Sue Terry, actually stated that the innocence possibilty of the scientific evidence ought not to matter. How horrifying..!

My own view after reading this, is that in the event of a murder or a rape, if there is ONLY circumstantial evidence, i.e. no DNA, and NO video (say, of a gunman in a 7 11 actually shooting dead all the victims) then the Death Penalty should Never be issued, only life imprisonment at worst.

Thank goodness for the new DNA technology breakthroughs in the last decade which released several folks in this book who may have, in fact, been executed under less fortunate circumstances.

Anyway, I am digressing here from my "moral of the story".

If, God forbid, you are EVER, in a one in 10 million chance, confronted by police and detectives, prosecutors, and, at the same time, you are innocent, for GOSH SAKES....

"GET A LAWYER"....before answering ANY Detective, police, etc questions.

Many of the victims of injustice here might never have done time in prison, or much less time, had they been aware of, or, insisted upon their Miranda Rights.

Initially I purchased this book due to my appreciation of the writing style of Dave Eggers. While Eggers is only an editor/compiler, what is presented to the reader is a very well put together and absorbing set of essays. The essays within detail the personal struggles of 13 different people all convicted of crimes they didn't commit. Some have served decades in prison, and while it focuses on the undoubtedly broken US prison system, there is a lesson to be learned across the globe from these tales of tragedy and redemption. While an often frustrating and emotional read, Eggers and Vollen have managed to get inside the minds of these tortured souls, with the intention of demonstrating the flaws of the criminal justice system in its current state. Recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in criminology-type topics.

...but it's a myth. Are most people accused of crimes in fact guilty? Yes, they are. However, enough people slip through the cracks that this is a serious problem that is in desperate need of attention by our lawmakers.

This book profiles 13 people who have been wrongfully accused, convicted, incarcerated, and ultimately exonerated. It is written, for the most part, in first-person narratives with some small clarification and background by the authors sprinkled throughout each narrative. For the most part, I appreciate and like the narratives. They give a unique and personal perspective that hits home harder than a purely clinical reciting of the facts. While I enjoyed this book immensely, and learned a great deal from it, the over-reliance on first-person narratives and the lack of background information, in some of the profiles, loses a star for me in my rating. I understand the authors wanted to let the people speak for themselves, but I felt they should have kept them all on track to some minimal degree.

Some of the narratives, such as Beverly Monroe's, were very poignant and informational... not to mention infuriating. I could almost feel what she felt. I could envision the injustices as they happened. The other people in her story were all too real to me. In my opinion, Agent Riley is himself a criminal, and deserving of prison time.

Other profiles, such as Kevin Green's, were virtually completely lacking in hard information. Mr. Green's narrative was almost entirely on his thoughts and feelings during his childhood, legal problems, prison time, and subsequent release. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not why I bought this book. We got basically one sentence in 32 pages that mentioned one detective taking it upon himself to convict Mr Green, and then it was dropped. I wanted more than that. I wanted to know more about how and why this detective was able to get away with what he did. What, specifically, did this detective do? How, exactly, did the system fail Mr. Green? If Mr. Green was unwilling to go into more detail, then the authors should have filled it in.

Ok, enough of that. Throughout the book there are footnotes that refer to the back of the book. There, chapters devoted to other related side issues help the reader understand in more detail what is happening and why: i.e. how false confessions are attained, prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective legal counsel, biased juries, and so on. Also included is a list of the author's recommended reforms.

All in all, a very good read. Very informative. A very powerful counter argument to the "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" garbage that is routinely spewed forth the naive and/or those with an agenda to further.

What an eye-opening novel! Before reading Surviving Justice, I was blind to all the flaws in the justice system and all the horrors of prison. This book will make your heart go out to all wrongfully convicted prisoners. With each prisoner's story, you'll be anxious to find out how their innocence was proven. You'll feel like you're the one behind the bars, and you won't be able to put it down until they've seen exoneration.

This book is a collection of stories from the point of view of thirteen wrongfully convicted men and women. Each story is different, but all are examples of flaws in the justice system. These people were sent to prison, some even sentenced to death, for crimes they did not commit. All of these people were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most were labeled guilty of killing complete strangers. Others were even convicted of murdering their loved ones.

When I first picked up the book, I could not believe what I was reading. It never occurred to me that this could ever happen, especially in America. How can someone so innocent be sentenced to death? Some of the prisoners were labeled suspects right away just because of their quiet, and sometimes awkward personalities. I also could not imagine how these people dealt with their situations so peacefully. They were completely guiltless, yet were forced to serve many years in prisons where some were brutally beaten and even raped. Almost none of the exonerated men and women were angry when they were released. I just could not fathom how they did not come out wanting vengeance.

Surviving Justice is an excellent novel that tells the tales of thirteen unfortunate men and women who survived many torturous years in prison, and survived justice.

This is a compilation of stories from a few who were wrongly convicted and later exonerated. The stories are extremely interesting and are transcribed from interviews. The most interesting aspect was the appendix, which was full of additional information on topics related to prison, wrongful convictions, and compensation (or lack thereof) for exonerees. Definitely gets one thinking about "justice" and includes plenty of information for thinking deeply about and discussing the U.S. justice system and state of prisons.