LibGuides: Wrongful Convictions Clinic: Books & Articles

Wrongful Conviction Books

Actual Innocence: When Justice Goes Wrong and How to Make it Right by Jim Dwyer, Peter Neufeld & Barry Scheck
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9756 .D98 2003
ISBN: 9780451209825
Publication Date: 2003-12-02
"Here are the stories of innocent men and women—and the system that put them away under the guise of justice." More Goodreads information.
Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong by Raymond Bonner
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF225.E43 B66 2012
ISBN: 9780307700216
Publication Date: 2012-02-21
"The book that helped free an innocent man who had spent twenty-seven years on death row." More Goodreads information.
Benefit of Law: The Murder Case of Ernest Triplett by Robert Bartels
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF224.T74 B37 1988
ISBN: 0813819768
Publication Date: 1988-11-01
The story of State of Iowa v. Ernest James Triplett, Jr. Goodreads information.
Blind Injustice: A Former Prosecutor Exposes the Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Convictions by Mark Godsey
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9756 .G63 2017
ISBN: 9780520287952
Publication Date: 2017-10-10
“In this unprecedented view from the trenches, prosecutor turned champion for the innocent Mark Godsey takes us inside the frailties of the human mind as they unfold in real-world wrongful convictions.” More Goodreads information.
Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA by Tim Junkin
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV8701.B56 J85 2004
ISBN: 9781565124196
Publication Date: 2004-10-09
“Charged with the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in 1984, Kirk Bloodsworth was tried, convicted, and sentenced to die in Maryland’s gas chamber. After nine years in one of the harshest prisons in America, Kirk Bloodsworth was vindicated by DNA evidence. He was pardoned by the governor of Maryland and has gone on to become a tireless spokesman against capital punishment.” More Goodreads information.
Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades on Death Row for a Crime I Didn’t Commit by Kerry Max Cook
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF224.C66 C66 2007
ISBN: 9780060574642
Publication Date: 2007-02-27
“Kerry Cook is an innocent man who wrongly served two decades in Texas's notorious death house for the brutal 1977 rape and murder of 21-year-old Linda Jo Edwards.” More Goodreads information.
Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong by Brandon L. Garrett
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9756 .G37 2011
ISBN: 9780674058705
Publication Date: 2011-04-04
“DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free.” More Goodreads information.
Conviction of the Innocent: Lessons from Psychological Research by Brian L. Cutler (Editor)
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV7419 .C692 2012
ISBN: 9781433810213
Publication Date: 2011-08-15
"Brian L. Cutler presents a provocative overview of current psychological research on conviction of the innocent." More Goodreads information.
Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three by Mara Leveritt
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV6534.W47 L49 2002
ISBN: 0743417593
Publication Date: 2002-10-08
“In 2011, one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American legal history was set right when Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley were released after eighteen years in prison.” More Goodreads information.
Duped: Why Innocent People Confess – and Why We Believe Their Confessions by Saul M. Kassin
Call Number: Law Library On Order
ISBN: 9781633888098
"Psychologist Saul Kassin, the world's leading expert on false confessions, explains how interrogators trick innocent people into confessing, and then how the criminal justice system deludes us into believing these confessions." More Goodreads information.
Exoneree Diaries: The Fight for Innocence, Independence, and Identity by Alison Flowers
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9756 .F56 2016
ISBN: 9781608466757
Publication Date: 2016-06-07
"Through intimate portraits of four exonerated prisoners, journalist Alison Flowers explores what happens to innocent people when the state flings open the jailhouse door and tosses them back, empty-handed into the unknown." More Goodreads information.
False Justice: Eight Myths That Convict the Innocent by Jim Petro & Nancy Petro
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9756 .P47 2015
ISBN: 9781138782990
Publication Date: 2014-07-18
"Compelling and engagingly written, this book by former Attorney General of Ohio Jim Petro and his wife, writer Nancy Petro, takes the reader inside actual cases, summarizes extensive research on the causes and consequences of wrongful conviction, and exposes eight common myths that inspire false confidence in the justice system and undermine reform." More Goodreads information.
Fear of 13: Countdown to Execution: My Fight for Survival on Death Row by Nick Yarris
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV8701.Y37 F43 2016
ISBN: 1780896522
Publication Date: 2017-02-01
"Found guilty of the rape and murder of a woman he had never met, Nick Yarris was sentenced to death. With appeal after appeal failing he spent twenty-two years waiting to die. This is the true and amazing story of how he survived Death Row." More Goodreads information.
Flawed Convictions: “Shaken Baby Syndrome” and the Inertia of Injustice by Deborah Tuerkheimer
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9323 .T84 2014
ISBN: 9780199913633
Publication Date: 2014-04-10
"We now know that the diagnostic triad alone does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an infant was abused, or that the last person with the baby was responsible for the baby's condition. Nevertheless, our legal system has failed to absorb this new consensus. As a result, innocent parents and caregivers remain incarcerated and, perhaps more perplexingly, triad-only prosecutions continue even to this day." More Goodreads information.
Forgive Me by Cathleen C. Webb; Marie Chapian
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV6561 .W43 1985
ISBN: 9780800714628
Publication Date: 1985-10-01
"Tells the story of Cathy Webb who retracted the testimony that, six years before had sent Gary Dotson to prison on a rape conviction, and explains how her new-found Christian faith convinced her to step forward." More Goodreads information.
Getting Life: An Innocent Man’s 25-Year Journey from Prison to Peace by Michael Morton
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV9468.M67 A3 2014
ISBN: 9781476756820
Publication Date: 2014-07-08
"He spent twenty-five years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He lost his wife, his son, and his freedom. This is the story of how Michael Morton finally got justice—and a second chance at life." More Goodreads information.
Ghost of the Innocent Man: A True Story of Trial and Redemption by Benjamin Rachlin
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV9468.G75 R33 2017
ISBN: 9780316311496
Publication Date: 2017-08-15
"The book offers a profound reckoning not only with the shortcomings of our criminal justice system but also with its possibilities for redemption." More Goodreads information.
Good Kids, Bad City by Kyle Swenson
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF224.A38 S94 2019
ISBN: 9781250120236
Publication Date: 2019-02-12
"From award-winning investigative journalist Kyle Swenson, Good Kids, Bad City is the true story of the longest wrongful imprisonment in the United States to end in exoneration, and a critical social and political history of Cleveland, the city that convicted them." More Goodreads information.
Infinite Hope: How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement, and 12 Years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul by Anthony Graves
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF224.G735 G73 2018
ISBN: 9780807062524
Publication Date: 2018-01-16
"Written by a wrongfully convicted man who spent 16 years in solitary confinement and 12 years on death row, a powerful memoir about fighting for--and winning--exoneration." More Goodreads information.
Innocent: Inside Wrongful Conviction Cases by Scott Christianson
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9756 .C49 2004
ISBN: 9780814716342
Publication Date: 2004-02-01
"Innocent graphically documents forty-two recent criminal cases to find evidence of shocking miscarriages of justice, especially in murder cases." More Goodreads information.
The Innocent Killer: A True Story of a Wrongful Conviction and its Astonishing Aftermath by Michael Griesbach
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF225.A84 G75 2014
ISBN: 9781627223638
Publication Date: 2014-08-07
"An instant true crime classic, this is the story one of the nation's most notorious wrongful convictions, that of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who spent eighteen years in prison for a crime he did not commit." More Goodreads information.
The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town by John Grisham
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF224.W5535 G75 2006
ISBN: 9780385517232
Publication Date: 2006-10-10
"John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction challenges what you believe about justice in America. Prepare to be shocked, disturbed, and infuriated by the story of a man wrongly convicted of murder and sent to death row." More Goodreads information.
In the Company of Giants: The Ultimate Investigation Guide for Legal Professionals, Journalists & the Wrongly Convicted by Paul J. Ciolino
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV8073 .C5 2005
"Herein lies the root of the issue. Justice, morality, and freedom. This is what our fight is about." More Goodreads information.
It Happened to Audrey: A Terrifying Journey from Loving Mother to Accused Baby Killer by Jill Wellington & Audrey Edmunds
Call Number: Law Library Stacks RA1122.5 .E36 2012
ISBN: 9780985799809
Publication Date: 2012-12-06
Before she was exonerated, Audrey Edmunds spent 13 years in prison, convicted of killing an infant through Shaken Baby Syndrome. More Goodreads information.
Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System by M. Chris Fabricant
Call Number: Law Library On Order
ISBN: 9781636140308
Publication Date: 2022-04-05
"In 2012, the Innocence Project began searching for prisoners convicted by junk science, and three men, each convicted of capital murder, became M. Chris Fabricant's clients. Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System chronicles the fights to overturn their wrongful convictions and to end the use of the 'science' that destroyed their lives." More Goodreads information.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF373.S743 A3 2014 (Also in Cowles Library Stacks)
"An unforgettable true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to end mass incarceration in America — from one of the most inspiring lawyers of our time." The book tells the story of the Equal Justice Initiative and one of its first clients: Walter McMillian, convicted of a murder he did not commit. More Goodreads information.
Long Way Home: A Young Man Lost in the System and the Two Women Who Found Him by Laura Caldwell
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV6534.C4 C35 2010
ISBN: 9781439100233
Publication Date: 2010-09-14
"Nineteen-year-old Jovan Mosley, a good kid from one of Chicago’s very bad neighborhoods, was coerced into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit. Charged with murder, he spent five years and eight months in a prison for violent criminals. Without a trial." More Goodreads information.
Miscarriages of Justice: Actual Innocence, Forensic Evidence, and the Law by Brent E. Turvey & Craig Cooley
Call Number: Law Library Stacks K5560 .T87 2014
ISBN: 9780124115583
Publication Date: 2014-06-10
"Miscarriages of justice are a regular occurrence in the criminal justice system, which is characterized by government agencies that are understaffed, underfunded, and undertrained across the board. We know this because, every week, DNA testing and innocence projects across the United States help to identify and eventually overturn wrongful convictions." More Goodreads information.
Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Ronald Cotton & Erin Torneo
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV6568.B87 T56 2009
ISBN: 9780312376536
Publication Date: 2009-03-03
"Two years after his release, Jennifer and Ronald met face to face—and forged an unlikely friendship that changed both of their lives." More Goodreads information.
Pruno, Ramen, and a Side of Hope: Stories of Surviving Wrongful Conviction by Courtney B. Lance
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV9468 .L36 2015
ISBN: 9781618689252
Publication Date: 2015-02-24
"People who have been wrongfully convicted tell stories of hope, redemption, and how they continued to believe the system that put them behind bars would eventually find them innocent." More Goodreads information.
Race and Justice: Wrongful Convictions of African American Men by Marvin D. Free & Mitch Ruesink
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV9950 .F744 2012
"In this investigation of some 350 wrongful convictions of African American men, Marvin Free and Mitch Ruesink critically examine how issues of race undercut the larger goals of our criminal justice system." More Amazon information.
Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice after Wrongful Conviction by Lara Bazelon
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV9950 .B39 2018
ISBN: 9780807029176
Publication Date: 2018-10-16
"Makes a powerful argument for adopting a model of restorative justice as part of the Innocence Movement so exonerees, crime victims, and their communities can come together to heal." More Goodreads information.
Shattered Justice: Crime Victims' Experiences with Wrongful Convictions and Exonerations by Kimberly J. Cook
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV6250.3.U5 C629 2022
ISBN: 9781978820357
"Shattered Justice presents original crime victims' experiences with violent crime, investigations and trials, and later exonerations in their cases. Using in-depth interviews with 21 crime victims across the United States, Cook reveals how homicide victims’ family members and rape survivors describe the painful impact of the primary trauma, the secondary trauma of the investigations and trials, and then the tertiary trauma associated with wrongful convictions and exonerations." Also discusses policy reforms. More Goodreads information.
Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice by Alexandra Natapoff
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9665 .N38 2009
ISBN: 9780814758502
Publication Date: 2009-11-16
"Uncovers the powerful and problematic practice of snitching" and how it can contribute to wrongful convictions and other perversions of justice. More Goodreads information.
Stolen Years: Stories of the Wrongfully Imprisoned by Reuven Fenton
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9756 .F46 2015
ISBN: 9781630150013
Publication Date: 2015-05-01
"Intense, startling, and utterly compelling, Stolen Years will take readers into the stories of the ones who didn't do it." More Goodreads information.
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton & Lara Love Hardin
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF224.H565 H56 2018
ISBN: 9781250124715
Publication Date: 2018-03-27
"A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit." More Goodreads information.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Call Number: Law Library Stacks PS3562.E353 T6 1982
ISBN: 9780446310789
Publication Date: 1988-10-11
"The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it." More Goodreads information.
Too Politically Sensitive by Michale Callahan
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV8079.H6 C35 2009
ISBN: 9780615281032
Publication Date: 2009-04-01
"This true story is about Callahan’s fight to search for the truth, no matter where it may lead, to search for the real killers and help free the two innocent men he learned were railroaded into prison." More Goodreads information.
Victims of Justice, Revisited by Thomas Frisbie & Randy Garrett
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV6534.N17 F75 2005
ISBN: 0810122367
Publication Date: 2005-05-04
"Perhaps no legal case has done more to reshape America's debate over the death penalty than Illinois's prosecution and conviction of Rolando Cruz." More Goodreads information.
Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir by Amanda Knox
Call Number: Cowles Library Stacks HV6535 .I83 P475 2013
ISBN: 9780062217202
Publication Date: 2013-04-30
"In the fall of 2007, twenty-year old college coed Amanda Knox left Seattle to study abroad in Perugia, Italy for one year. But that November 1, her life was shattered when her roommate, British student Meredith Kercher, was murdered in their apartment." Originally found guilty, Knox's conviction was overturned in 2011. More Goodreads information.
When Truth Is All You Have by Jim McCloskey & Philip Lerman
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9756 .M33 2020
ISBN: 9780385545037
Publication Date: 2020-07-14
This book tells the story of Jim McCloskey, who "established Centurion Ministries, the first group in America devoted to overturning wrongful convictions. Together with his staff and a team of forensic experts, lawyers, and volunteers—through tireless investigation and an unflagging dedication to justice—Centurion has freed 65 innocent prisoners who had been sentenced to life or death." More Amazon information.
Working in Innocence Programs: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Innocence Work but Were Afraid to Ask by Sarah A. Mourer
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF282 .M68 2013
ISBN: 9781600421846
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
"This book is written for anyone interested in the innocence cause." More Amazon information.
The Wrong Guys: Murder, False Confessions, and the Norfolk Four by Tom Wells & Richard A. Leo
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV6534.N878 W45 2008
ISBN: 9781595584014
Publication Date: 2008-09-01
"In this gripping story of justice gone awry, four innocent men separately confess to the heinous crime that none of them actually committed." More Goodreads information.
The Wrong Men: America’s Epidemic of Wrongful Death Row Convictions by Stanley Cohen
Call Number: Law Library Stacks HV8698 .C64 2003
ISBN: 0786712589
Publication Date: 2003-09-04
"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." More Goodreads information.
Wrongful Conviction: From Prevention to the Reversal of Injustice by John A. Humphrey & Kaitlyn M. Clarke
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9756 .H86 2018
ISBN: 9780398092061
Publication Date: 2018-01-19
"This book provides an understanding of legal remedies, organizational reforms, and policy changes that have been proposed and implemented [to] reduce the likelihood of a wrongful conviction." More Amazon information.
Wrongful Conviction in Sexual Assault: Stranger Rape, Acquaintance Rape, and Intra-Familial Child Sexual Assaults by Matthew Barry Johnson
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9329 .J64 2021
ISBN: 9780190653057
Publication Date: 2020-10-19
"Citing Innocence Project and National Registry of Exoneration data, the book identifies sexual assault as the predominant offense type associated with confirmed wrongful convictions in the US." More Amazon information.
Wrongful Conviction: Law, Science, and Policy by James R. Acker & Allison D. Redlich
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9756 .A25 2019
ISBN: 9781531002251
Publication Date: 2019-05-02
"The newly updated, revised second edition of Wrongful Conviction addresses and incorporates numerous highly significant developments involving data, law, social science research, and the forensic sciences that relate to wrongful convictions in the American system of justice and that have occurred since the first edition was published in 2011." More Goodreads information.
Wrongful Convictions and the DNA Revolution: Twenty-Five Years of Freeing the Innocent by Daniel S. Medwed (Editor)
Call Number: Law Library Stacks KF9756 .W76 2017
ISBN: 9781107129962
Publication Date: 2017-03-30
"This book examines the lessons learned from twenty-five years of DNA exonerations and identifies lingering challenges." More Goodreads information.

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Wrongful Conviction Law Review (WCLR)
The WCLR is a non-profit, open access, peer-reviewed international journal focusing on wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice. Also available to Drake faculty, staff, and students through HeinOnline.

Related Subject Headings
Some of these subject headings will only find books, and others will find both books and articles. Judicial error is the best fit heading for both books and articles. Clicking on the links below will provide results found in SuperSearch, which includes books in the Cowles and Law Library collections, as well as eBooks, articles, and other resources found in many, but not all, Drake databases.

It might also be useful to do an advanced search and combine one of the terms above with another subject heading. Suggested terms:

Best practices
Law reform
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Wrongful Convictions Clinic

Wrongful Conviction Books

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