The Wrong Men: America's Epidemic of Wrongful Death Row Convictions [Paperback]

Stanley Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2003

In January 2000, Illinois Governor George H. Ryan declared a moratorium on state executions. Three years later, Ryan commuted all Illinois death sentences to life imprisonment, saying, “Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error, error in determining guilt, and error in determining who among the guilty deserves to die.” This book chronicles over one hundred cases where journalism students, grassroots organizations, families, and pro bono lawyers—armed with DNA evidence and other instruments of justice—have defeated that demon. Cohen reveals how eyewitness error, jailhouse snitch testimony, racism, junk science, prosecutorial misconduct, and incompetent counsel have often populated America’s death row with the wrong men. Readers embark on journeys with men who were arrested, convicted, sentenced to death, dragged through the appeals system, and finally set free based on their actual innocence. Some languished for decades in our death houses. Notable cases of wrongful imprisonment outside of death row are also profiled. Although these stories end with vindication, there are those that have ended with unjustified execution. The Wrong Men is sure to fuel controversy over a justice system that has delivered the ultimate punishment 820 times since 1976, though it cannot guarantee accurate convictions.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As the title suggests, Cohen (The Man in the Crowd) examines some 100 instances where people sentenced to death were later exonerated, most of them ultimately proven innocent of the crimes for which they were condemned. The capsule profiles of the exonerated are often too sketchy to be fully satisfactory. Still, Cohen makes his case that innocent people regularly receive death sentences merely through the cumulative effect of the stories. Cohen also analyzes the chief reasons why wrongful convictions occur so frequently. Eyewitness error is a prime factor, whether because of simple mistake or pressure from law enforcement officials. Again, prosecutors avid for convictions distort trials by inducing or winking at perjury or by suppressing evidence favorable to the accused. Other wrongful convictions are attributed to junk science, such as having witnesses' memories stimulated by amateur hypnotists. The author's explanations of these sources of capital error are straightforward and clarified by well-chosen examples. DNA analysis, as the book also explains, has become the main vehicle for exonerating the innocent, but in many cases no DNA evidence is available. Cohen believes the death penalty will soon be relegated to the "dark and distant past," and this volume is a convincing argument for the unreliability of capital convictions.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Cohen's criticism of the U.S. criminal justice system is harsh and specifically grounded in the wrongful convictions of so many death-row prisoners. From the initial use of DNA to free convicted rapist Gary Dotson after his victim recanted her story to the death-row reprieve of Anthony Porter as a consequence of an investigation by a Northwestern University professor and his students, our criminal justice system has failed on a number of levels. Cohen details the weak areas, including false confessions, eyewitness errors, jailhouse informants, corrupt practices, lack of evidence, and flawed science. Although some may argue that the recent surge in the release of death-row prisoners reflects a justice system that works, Cohen successfully argues the opposite. The story of the death-row victims of our criminal justice system are horrific and, by all indications, not as unique as we would hope. Cohen reports that there are hundreds of such cases. This book is a must-read for those concerned with the inequities of our criminal justice system. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; 1st Carroll & Graf Ed edition (August 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786712589
• ISBN-13: 978-0786712588
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #582,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read - Even If You're Pro-death Penalty, Like Me!, August 15, 2004

By 

Dan Blankenship "Author of THE RUNNING GIRL" (Lowell, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wrong Men: America's Epidemic of Wrongful Death Row Convictions (Paperback)

I live in Indiana, very close to the border with Illinois. Our local news comes out of Chicago, Illinois, and since a large portion of the stories included in this non-fiction novel took place in the "Land of Lincoln" I was very familiar with a lot of the cases.

As I state in my title of this review, I am pro-death penalty. But I believe this book proves that our judicial system needs to improve greatly. The stories in this book are proof that there are flaws in the system - as I believe there will always be, in any system. The problem is that in many of these cases common sense should have stopped a wrongful conviction. It didn't, and Stanley Cohen does a fantastic job of pointing that out.

Now, why am I still pro-death penalty. Because I believe, as long as America allows the murder of the most innocent human life (a child in the womb), our justice system should be allowed to dole out the most harshest punishment available for the act of murder on those outside the womb. Elaborating on this - in Cohen's book he uses a quote from Clarence Darrow: "There isn't, I submit, a single admissible argument in favor of capital punishment. Nature loves life. We believe that life should be protected and preserved. The thing which keeps one from killing is the emotion they have against it; and the greater sanctity that the state pays to life, the greater the feeling of sanctity the individual has for life."

I couldn't agree more. And I look forward to the day when anti-death penalty activists line up outside abortion clinics with their message of supporting the sanctity of life. The day I see this happening, I will join the Stanley Cohen's of the world and march with them outside a scheduled execution, protesting the extreme punishment. Cohen, feel free to take me up on this, if you dare.

All that aside, Stanley Cohen's book is packed with a lot of great reading. I can't imagine the pain and suffering a person wrongly convicted must endure, and of course, reading this book is not going to make me understand how it feels. But I can say it has opened my eyes to how blatantly wrong many of these prosecutions have been handled. This book is also written in a rapid-fire manner, that you almost have to take a break from every so often. I tried to remind myself that most of time, the death penalty is not given to innocent men. But then I had to remind myself, just once, and the horror for that one is enough.

I plan on reading this book through again. I find most non-fiction books to be a boring read, but Cohen is a great writer - he manages to never bore the reader, and makes a brilliant presentation in this book.

It amazes me that there are not hundreds of reviews posted here. This book should be a TOP TEN BESTSELLER! Just another example of how hype and timing play into that list.

Buy this book no matter what side of the aisle you're on. It is a MUST READ. Have I mentioned that yet?

See ya next review.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Overwhelming evidence of innocence on death row, December 16, 2003

By 

Robert M. Burn "rybob5" (Owings Mills, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wrong Men: America's Epidemic of Wrongful Death Row Convictions (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book immensely. It is about persons sent to death row to await execution, but who were later set free due to mistakes in our judicial systems.

The book includes several examples of public servants who serve their own interests by lying and sending innocent people to death row. One story that stands out for me: Earl Charles was convicted for a double murder that took place in 1974 in Savannah, Georgia while he was living and working in Tampa, Florida. According to evidence described in the book, it is apparent that Detective F.W.Wade used perjury and coercion to get the conviction. The thing that saved Charles was that his boss, the manager of a gasoline service station, did not trust him. The boss had asked a deputy sheriff to look in on him from time to time which he did. The sheriff also kept a log which showed that Charles was at work on the day of the murders. When Charles was convicted and sentenced to the electric chair, his former employer and the deputy sheriff came to his rescue at the request of Charles' mother. His conviction was vacated and he was set free after spending 3 years awaiting execution.

The book also contains examples of people who were set free who probably were guilty in reality. Consequently, additional light is shed on how and why our legal system fails. When guilty criminals go free on technicalities, police are motivated to try harder the next time - even to the point of fabricating evidence so as to win instead of lose. The book also concludes that while many innocent people have been freed from death row it is mathematically probable that a high number of innocent people have been executed.

At times I found it depressing. Mitigating my depression was the fact that woven throughout are heroes who stood up for the truth.

The book was sketchy in places. 101 people are freed from death row in 290 pages. That's about 3 pages per person. I would have liked to see a little more depth to rate it 5 stars. Still, there are so many cases, the book has value a reference. It also serves well the notion that these occurrences are not extraordinary, made-for-TV, examples. They happen repeatedly in many states. You have to read it to believe it. The book also demonstrates that our system for capital punishment in the U.S. is still broken as of this writing.