Exoneree Diaries: The Fight for Innocence, Independence, and Identity

by Alison Flowers

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.

From the front lines of the wrongful conviction capital of the United States—Cook County, Ill.—these stories reveal serious gaps in the criminal justice system. Flowers depicts the collateral damage of wrongful convictions on families and communities, challenging the deeper problem of mass incarceration in the United States. As she tells each exoneree’s powerful story, Flowers vividly shows that release from prison, though sometimes joyous and hopeful, is not a Hollywood ending—or an ending at all. Rather, an exoneree’s first unshackled steps are the beginning of a new journey full of turmoil and triumph.

Based on Chicago Public Media’s yearlong multimedia series—a finalist for a national Online Journalism Award—this narrative piece of investigative journalism tells profoundly human stories of reclaiming one’s life, overcoming adversity, and searching for purpose—at times with devastating consequences and courageous breakthroughs.

Genres: Nonfiction, Social Justice, Politics, True Crime

288 pages, Hardcover

First published June 7, 2016

About the author

Alison Flowers is an award-winning investigative journalist who focuses on social and criminal justice. Her yearlong multimedia series about exonerees for Chicago Public Media and NPR affiliate WBEZ was a finalist for a national Online Journalism Award in 2014. A former TV reporter, Flowers has also written for the Village Voice, VICE News, and others. She is a Social Justice News Nexus fellow and works at the Invisible Institute, a journalism production company on the South Side of Chicago.

Reviews

[Evie Hemphill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing volume that is four books for the price of one, with each exoneree's story distinct yet interconnected as part of an unprecedented look at the experiences of the wrongfully convicted after they are released from prison. It's a deeply human achievement, impressive for its reporting (continually a stunning combination of legwork and hard-earned coherence), storytelling power and urgent relevance. At a time when shows like "Orange Is the New Black" and "Making a Murderer" have captured the public imagination, Alison Flowers' "Exoneree Diaries" goes further and deeper in important ways. I cannot recommend the book highly enough.

[Kayla]

hey if anyone finds any faith or hope lying around can I get a piece because I’ve lost all mine after reading this and Correction

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

An important book, and I'm glad I read it. I do think the four essays could have been tightened up and an additional one to two people featured.

[Eliza Winkler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing book, giving a much needed voice to those who have been wronged by the justice system. As one who pins on a badge daily, the accounts presented both broke my heart and angered me as their struggles were revealed in many instances to be the results of the corruption within the police force. I highly recommend this book!

[Chan Fry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is pretty powerful stuff. Flowers delves into the lives of four formerly convicted and incarcerated persons, all now freed after proving their innocence. Not only does the book prove the shams that were the investigations and original trials, but it deals with the ongoing direct and indirect harmful effects of wrongful imprisonment. It’s written well and the stories are engrossing.

My two complaints are minor, but they kept this from being a perfect experience for me: (1) occasionally Flowers will switch between various periods in time, within a paragraph or two, and it isn’t always clear when certain things occurred; (2) there are formatting issues with the ebook: blockquotes aren’t set off by indentations or slightly smaller text, so they look like regular paragraphs without quotations, and there are quite a few line breaks in the middle of sentences (even in the midst of hyphenated words).

(I have published a longer review on my website.)

[Dan Byrnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just finished HBO's "The Night Of," I saw this as the show's non-fiction companion. But more that that, it blends thoughtful journalism with compelling narrative, creating four stories that draw you in for different reasons and leave you wanting more (in a good way!).

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was definitely a book that needed to be written, and should not be a book that was as rare to find at local libraries as it was. Rather than a single account of an individual, Flowers tells the stories of four different individuals who were wrongly convicted and served anywhere from 10-30 years under their wrongful convictions. The beauty of this is that it illustrates that although there are certainly themes (like the impact of racism and poverty and unethical police), there is no one cause for the injustice in our justice system. Something that was particularly surprising to me was how difficult it was for individuals to actually be exonerated or declared innocent - that in many cases, after a lot of legal hoops, the prosecution actually drops their case for retrial and this allows the defendant to go free, but does not erase their original criminal record. I also appreciated that Flowers talks at the end of the book about the impact on victim's families and how rare it is for them to believe the new evidence and recognize the individual as innocent, which makes a lot of sense given how identification and punishment of a perpetrator is a big part of what helps them cope with their grief. All in all, it's a complicated system and just leaves me wondering why everyone can't just do their jobs and do so ethically - although that might not address bigger systemic issues, it seems like it would go a long way towards treating people fairly and giving us a more just justice system.

[Mimi V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today in Chicago, 15 more men were exonerated because of the work of the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School. Unfortunately, many of them had already served their sentences before enough investigation was completed to prove their innocence. Police and prosecutor misconduct has resulted in hundreds and hundreds of people serving sentences although they were innocent of the charges.

This book focuses on just a few who were ultimately released. The subjects of this book struggle with the loss of years of freedom, loss of education, loss of family, loss of friends. One of them lost a child and was then falsely accused of causing that child's death. It's heartening and unbelievable that some of them are not as bitter as I believe I would be under the circumstances. They face many more challenges now that they are "free."

This could happen to any one of us at any time. We have a responsibility as a society to see that these false prosecutions result in repercussions for the police and prosecutors.

[Paulafaivre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written book. I picked up this book because I am friends with Jane Raley’s remarkable parents. Jane Raley was an incredible lawyer who worked for the Northwestern School of Law, Center of Wrongful Convictions and worked tirelessly on most of these cases. I believe she was responsible for having 12 or 13 wrongfully convicted people exonerated. I wish I had known her personally. She passed away much too young. My heart aches for the exonerees. I pray for their peace.

[JoAnna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three-line review: This book features the stories of four people who have been wrongly convicted and incarcerated. While I found the concept of the book interesting, it wasn't as engaging as I'd hoped. I think there was a missed opportunity to talk more about the societal, political, and cultural conditions that lead to wrongful incarceration and, occasionally, exoneration.

[Laura Koerber · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book narrates the trauma of incarceration and the long difficult recovery after release for four individuals. Innocent people who are wrongfully incarcerated should be given very substantial settlements. I think an income for the remainder of their lives would be fair. Despite their innocence and their suffering, they face nearly insurmountable obstacles upon release. Tragic.

[Sasha Pravdic · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read! Especially if you found Just Mercy compelling; these four cases happened in Chicago.

[Marina]

Thankyou Haymarketbooks for book discount from $9.99 into $ 1.00

[Kelsey McAlister · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great journalism - only rated lower because I already knew a few of these cases so it felt repetitive at times

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't imagine what these people have lived through. A great read for anyone curious about our justice system and how it fails people.

[Masha · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a very nice summary of life stories of exonerees in Illinois. People who got sentenced to prison mistakenly, and were released 10-20 years later. Stories so worth of amplifying. It is a good investigative piece. Just not a very well written book. I would also like to see more than one out of four stories about black people. Though unfortunately this is probably real current statistics for exonerees...

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it hard to get into this book because the writing was not engaging. Therefore, I didn’t feel much sympathy for the four subjects of the book, the exonerees who were wrongfully imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit. I could appreciate that they were from Chicago, and one gentleman was convicted due to the city’s notoriously corrupt system. But each individual’s story was too long in its presentation and the way their lives were portrayed was mundane. This happened to them, then that happened, and this straightforward narrative didn’t offer anything compelling. Their struggles with the judicial system and accommodating to life after long prison sentences should have elicited more compassion from me as a reader. By the latter half of the book, I was skimming the final two sections. While it’s important that these people’s stories are told, I’ve seen better examples of exoneree tales in Reuven Fenton’s Stolen Years.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.

[Jonah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the stories of four people who were convicted of crimes based bad evidence; a falsified arson report (it wasn't arson), a pressured preteen witness, an instance of a police brutality inspired confession, and a testimony based on somebody else's needing a plea bargain (and holding a grudge).
The stories are well told and may make you think about our justice system differently. It is a tribute to Jane Raley, a lawyer who worked to exonerate three of the four people whose stories are told here.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exoneree Diaries offers a peak into the lives of four people who have spent years in prison for a crime they didn't commit. The author does an incredible job of transporting you into their day-to-day struggles before, during, and after reclaiming their innocence. It's an incredibly compelling read on an extraordinarily heavy subject. I highly recommend it if you enjoy reading about social justice, true crime, criminology, courtroom drama, or biographical non-fiction.

[Alison Donnelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stories comprise this book; four stories of individuals who were wrongfully convicted of crimes that imprisoned them until they were eventually exonerated. A worthwhile and very human read for anyone who is interested in the criminal justice system, the journeys of the exonerees after their final days in court are compelling and bittersweet.

[Alan Mills]

Great

[Cristy Emmnm · Rating 4 out of 5]

2021 Reading Women Challenge: A book about incarceration