What do you think?
Rate this book
Smoke but No Fire: Convicting the Innocent of Crimes that Never Happened
The first book to explore a shocking yet all-too-common type of wrongful conviction—one that locks away innocent people for crimes that never actually happened.
Rodricus Crawford was convicted and sentenced to die for the murder by suffocation of his beautiful baby boy. After years on death row, evidence confirmed what Crawford had claimed all along: he was innocent, and his son had died from an undiagnosed illness. Crawford is not alone. A full one-third of all known exonerations stem from no-crime wrongful convictions.
The first book to explore this common but previously undocumented type of wrongful conviction, Smoke but No Fire tells the heartbreaking stories of innocent people convicted of crimes that simply never happened. A suicide is mislabeled a homicide. An accidental fire is mislabeled an arson. Corrupt police plant drugs on an innocent suspect. A false allegation of assault is invented to resolve a custody dispute. With this book, former New York City public defender Jessica S. Henry sheds essential light on a deeply flawed criminal justice system that allows—even encourages—these convictions to regularly occur. Smoke but No Fire promises to be eye-opening reading for legal professionals, students, activists, and the general public alike as it grapples with the chilling reality that far too many innocent people spend real years behind bars for fictional crimes.
Rodricus Crawford was convicted and sentenced to die for the murder by suffocation of his beautiful baby boy. After years on death row, evidence confirmed what Crawford had claimed all along: he was innocent, and his son had died from an undiagnosed illness. Crawford is not alone. A full one-third of all known exonerations stem from no-crime wrongful convictions.
The first book to explore this common but previously undocumented type of wrongful conviction, Smoke but No Fire tells the heartbreaking stories of innocent people convicted of crimes that simply never happened. A suicide is mislabeled a homicide. An accidental fire is mislabeled an arson. Corrupt police plant drugs on an innocent suspect. A false allegation of assault is invented to resolve a custody dispute. With this book, former New York City public defender Jessica S. Henry sheds essential light on a deeply flawed criminal justice system that allows—even encourages—these convictions to regularly occur. Smoke but No Fire promises to be eye-opening reading for legal professionals, students, activists, and the general public alike as it grapples with the chilling reality that far too many innocent people spend real years behind bars for fictional crimes.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2020
About the author
Jessica S. Henry
2 books21 followersJessica S. Henry was a public defender for nearly ten years in New York City before joining the Department of Justice Studies at Montclair State University. She is a criminal justice expert, with a particular focus on wrongful convictions and criminal justice reform. She has appeared on national television, radio and in print media. You can learn more at her website: http://jessicahenryjustice.com.
When she is not doing criminal justice, Henry can be found spending time with her family, reading, traveling or playing mah jong.
When she is not doing criminal justice, Henry can be found spending time with her family, reading, traveling or playing mah jong.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 27, 2020
This book is a must read for anyone who cares about either law and order or social justice. There is no societal interest in convicting people for crimes that never occurred, and yet it happens at alarming rates. There is something in this book to make everyone uncomfortable. Many people will nod along with the chapter on police misconduct but be less willing to hear about cases where women have lied about sexual assault. Others will have the opposite biases. One of the most important sections of the book deals with the inability of people to detect lies. Even people who are trained to detect lies are no better than the average person, which is to say, terrible at detecting lies. The only way to prove whether a crime was committed and who committed the crime is to look carefully at all the evidence. Henry details the many ways in which the system fails innocent people. Her conclusion details several specific and viable solutions that we as a society need to implement.
August 9, 2020
This is a great book that sheds light on an aspect of wrongful convictions that has not often been covered: namely, that people are often convicted and sent to prison over crimes that never happened. The culprits behind this — bad science, bad actors, incompetence, overworked defense lawyers, pressure to plead guilty, etc. — will not be surprising to anyone who is familiar with the innocence movement. But no-crime wrongful convictions are an important aspect of this issue that is not covered in many treatments of wrongful convictions. And Henry offers a good primer for those who are not as familiar with some of the causes of wrongful convictions, as well as a reminder for those of us that are. The stories of wrongfully convicted people, provided liberally throughout the books, are gut-wrenching, compelling, and terrifying. My only small criticism is that the book is, at times repetitive.
November 30, 2021
Most of us have heard news stories about someone wrongfully convicted of a crime they didn't commit, but who were exonerated. In this horrific book, Jessica Henry looks at another facet of wrongful conviction - people who were convicted of crimes that never happened. According to Henry, "...nearly one-third of all known exonerations of innocent people involve no-crime wrongful convictions." (p. 4) This is terrifying and Henry looks into the many factors involved in these kind of prosecutions and wrongful convictions. The three main issues at hand are 1) forensic error - a natural death that is treated as a homicide, 2) false accusations, and 3) our legal system - police, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges. She also explores the issue of misdemeanors and how they factor into these overall issues in our justice system. I've read a lot about true crime and miscarriages of justice, but what I read in this book was absolutely appalling. It's hard to fathom that this is everyday business in the United States and you're not reading about a third-world country or time in history that we've since overcome or changed for the better. I think most people think something like this only happens to "other people" - people who are involved in criminal life or live a high risk lifestyle, etc. But, Henry shows that this could literally happen to anyone from any walk of life. Although, people with more money and privilege are less likely to languish is prison awaiting trial or have to rely on a public defender.
I grew up watching Perry Mason and Law & Order on TV and thinking that the defense attorneys were the "bad guys" who were defending the criminals. Today, I can hardly watch Law & Order re-runs because of the cavalier attitudes of the police and prosecutors on that show. The more I read and watch documentaries on true crime, the more I realize just how much the whims of the police and prosecutors are at play in the justice system regardless of the fact that their decisions destroy people's lives daily. We shouldn't have a justice system based on whims and gut feelings. This book should be required reading for everyone.
There are a lot of quotes I liked:
"Once the police commit to a theory, tunnel vision may blind officers - and eventually the prosecutors to whom the case is referred - about who is telling the truth and who is lying. Cognitive biases cause the police to overvalue evidence that reinforces the lie, and to discard or minimize evidence that would otherwise indicate that something is rotten at the foundation of their case. When a wrongful conviction results, the lie becomes a legal truth, and a factually innocent person becomes a guilty one in the eyes of the law." (p. 47)
[On police arrest quotas] "In Miami Gardens, Florida, officers claimed they were told by superiors to 'bring in the numbers' and were ordered to stop all black males between fifteen and thirty years old." (p. 66)
[On prosecutor incentives] "In Colorado, prosecutors who obtained a 70 percent conviction rate (or higher) received a monetary bonus. Peers boast to one another about their convictions and hold raucous celebrations when a jury renders a guilty verdict. I've always found something peculiar and inappropriate about this celebratory aspect of obtaining convictions: 'We just sent someone to prison! Wha-hoo!' To me, a conviction of another human being, and their condemnation by the state to a term or prison or even death, is a somber and sobering moment, even when the defendant is factually guilty." (p. 85)
"We have an adversarial system that pits the prosecutor against the defendant in a courtroom battle where justice is the theoretical objective but where the measure of a prosecutor's success is their number of convictions. Then we tell the prosecutor that they have to turn over to the other side all the evidence that hurts their case. That's like asking the wolf to guard the chickens in the coop." (p. 97)
"Finding out that the prosecution possessed exculpatory evidence but did not turn it over is often a matter of pure luck or happenstance. How can a defendant learn that the prosecution hid evidence the defendant never knew about in the first place? They often can't." (p. 99)
"In 2009, Louisiana public defenders handled the equivalent of 19,000 misdemeanor cases annually, which gave them seven minutes per case...In Louisiana, a single public defender randomly selected by the New York Times had a caseload on a given day of 194 felonies. The Times calculated that the Louisiana lawyer would need almost 10,000 hours (the equivalent of five work-years) to provide truly competent representation to his existing clients." (p. 111)
"One may wonder in shock how it is that our system is so broken that judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and even defendants tolerate the idea that innocent people should plead guilty to crimes they did not commit because the alternative is worse." (p. 125)
[On judges] "In 2007, Pennsylvania was rocked by the 'Kids for Cash' scandal after it was discovered that two county judges had received more than 2.6 million from for-profit juvenile detention companies in return for steering as many juveniles as possible to their detention facilities." (p. 136)
"A 1982 study found that a reduction of just 10 percent in the number of defendants who plead guilty would require more than twice the number of judges and related judicial resources than existed at the time. And that study was conducted before the tough-on-crime policies of the 1980s and 1990s flooded the criminal justice systems and left judges staggering under heavier caseloads...the number of judges in federal court, for instance, increased by 4 percent from 1993 to 2013, while caseloads in that same period increased by 28 percent." (p. 143-44)
"One 2008 study about the TAP [Trespass Affidavit Program] program found that 'approximately 30% of the residents [who lived in specified housing units run by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)] reported they had been charged with trespassing, despite the fact that they lived there. Approximately 70% of those surveyed at the NYCHA Thomas Jefferson Houses reported that they had been repeatedly stopped by police officers when simply coming and going around their homes.'" (p. 164-65)
"A plea hides police wrongdoing, cloaks weaknesses in the prosecution's case, gives a pass to harried defense lawyers who have no time to provide real representation, and enables judges to keep their dockets moving. Further, pleas to crimes that never happened waste precious taxpayers' resources, with the police and prosecutor investigating fictional events and defense lawyers, mostly at taxpayer expense, trying to stave off the state. Worst of all, they harm innocent defendants who become permanently branded a criminal after serving whatever sentence they receive. Because the plea system circumvents the fact-finding function of a trial, a defendant's willingness to plead guilty is treated as evidence that he or she is guilty. This is, of course, simply untrue." (p. 185)
I grew up watching Perry Mason and Law & Order on TV and thinking that the defense attorneys were the "bad guys" who were defending the criminals. Today, I can hardly watch Law & Order re-runs because of the cavalier attitudes of the police and prosecutors on that show. The more I read and watch documentaries on true crime, the more I realize just how much the whims of the police and prosecutors are at play in the justice system regardless of the fact that their decisions destroy people's lives daily. We shouldn't have a justice system based on whims and gut feelings. This book should be required reading for everyone.
There are a lot of quotes I liked:
"Once the police commit to a theory, tunnel vision may blind officers - and eventually the prosecutors to whom the case is referred - about who is telling the truth and who is lying. Cognitive biases cause the police to overvalue evidence that reinforces the lie, and to discard or minimize evidence that would otherwise indicate that something is rotten at the foundation of their case. When a wrongful conviction results, the lie becomes a legal truth, and a factually innocent person becomes a guilty one in the eyes of the law." (p. 47)
[On police arrest quotas] "In Miami Gardens, Florida, officers claimed they were told by superiors to 'bring in the numbers' and were ordered to stop all black males between fifteen and thirty years old." (p. 66)
[On prosecutor incentives] "In Colorado, prosecutors who obtained a 70 percent conviction rate (or higher) received a monetary bonus. Peers boast to one another about their convictions and hold raucous celebrations when a jury renders a guilty verdict. I've always found something peculiar and inappropriate about this celebratory aspect of obtaining convictions: 'We just sent someone to prison! Wha-hoo!' To me, a conviction of another human being, and their condemnation by the state to a term or prison or even death, is a somber and sobering moment, even when the defendant is factually guilty." (p. 85)
"We have an adversarial system that pits the prosecutor against the defendant in a courtroom battle where justice is the theoretical objective but where the measure of a prosecutor's success is their number of convictions. Then we tell the prosecutor that they have to turn over to the other side all the evidence that hurts their case. That's like asking the wolf to guard the chickens in the coop." (p. 97)
"Finding out that the prosecution possessed exculpatory evidence but did not turn it over is often a matter of pure luck or happenstance. How can a defendant learn that the prosecution hid evidence the defendant never knew about in the first place? They often can't." (p. 99)
"In 2009, Louisiana public defenders handled the equivalent of 19,000 misdemeanor cases annually, which gave them seven minutes per case...In Louisiana, a single public defender randomly selected by the New York Times had a caseload on a given day of 194 felonies. The Times calculated that the Louisiana lawyer would need almost 10,000 hours (the equivalent of five work-years) to provide truly competent representation to his existing clients." (p. 111)
"One may wonder in shock how it is that our system is so broken that judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and even defendants tolerate the idea that innocent people should plead guilty to crimes they did not commit because the alternative is worse." (p. 125)
[On judges] "In 2007, Pennsylvania was rocked by the 'Kids for Cash' scandal after it was discovered that two county judges had received more than 2.6 million from for-profit juvenile detention companies in return for steering as many juveniles as possible to their detention facilities." (p. 136)
"A 1982 study found that a reduction of just 10 percent in the number of defendants who plead guilty would require more than twice the number of judges and related judicial resources than existed at the time. And that study was conducted before the tough-on-crime policies of the 1980s and 1990s flooded the criminal justice systems and left judges staggering under heavier caseloads...the number of judges in federal court, for instance, increased by 4 percent from 1993 to 2013, while caseloads in that same period increased by 28 percent." (p. 143-44)
"One 2008 study about the TAP [Trespass Affidavit Program] program found that 'approximately 30% of the residents [who lived in specified housing units run by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)] reported they had been charged with trespassing, despite the fact that they lived there. Approximately 70% of those surveyed at the NYCHA Thomas Jefferson Houses reported that they had been repeatedly stopped by police officers when simply coming and going around their homes.'" (p. 164-65)
"A plea hides police wrongdoing, cloaks weaknesses in the prosecution's case, gives a pass to harried defense lawyers who have no time to provide real representation, and enables judges to keep their dockets moving. Further, pleas to crimes that never happened waste precious taxpayers' resources, with the police and prosecutor investigating fictional events and defense lawyers, mostly at taxpayer expense, trying to stave off the state. Worst of all, they harm innocent defendants who become permanently branded a criminal after serving whatever sentence they receive. Because the plea system circumvents the fact-finding function of a trial, a defendant's willingness to plead guilty is treated as evidence that he or she is guilty. This is, of course, simply untrue." (p. 185)
March 23, 2021
Yessss Professor Henry!
I was a student of Professor Henry’s- she was leaving to write this book the year after I graduated. I had attended a panel that she was a part of which allowed clients to share their stories of their wrongful convictions.
Recently I thought to look up if the book was published and to my luck it was.
When reviewing the book, I tried to take out the bias that I have of being her student.
I enjoyed this book in the most infuriating way. It really pieces together all the parties that make wrongful convictions all too common. I like that it was not written with too many legal or scholarly terms, so that it was easy to follow and accessible to a wide variety of people with different education and reading levels.
I was a student of Professor Henry’s- she was leaving to write this book the year after I graduated. I had attended a panel that she was a part of which allowed clients to share their stories of their wrongful convictions.
Recently I thought to look up if the book was published and to my luck it was.
When reviewing the book, I tried to take out the bias that I have of being her student.
I enjoyed this book in the most infuriating way. It really pieces together all the parties that make wrongful convictions all too common. I like that it was not written with too many legal or scholarly terms, so that it was easy to follow and accessible to a wide variety of people with different education and reading levels.
September 12, 2020
Jessica blew my mind and put it back together, helping me understand the fundamental weaknesses and prejudices in the US criminal justice system that lead to wrongful convictions of incidents that were not even crimes. Highly recommend.
August 10, 2020
Such an interesting read! I know there are many cases of wrongful conviction, but I can't believe how many people are convicted of crimes that have never happened. The way that these cases start -- forensic error, false accusations, planted evidence -- is in itself shocking. But the way the system fails to respond is an outrage. This is an important book for those interested in criminal justice reform -- so timely and relevant. I highly recommend it.
August 24, 2020
Stunning and shocking. A great read for those interested in our justice system and the causes of wrongful convictions. It is surprising to learn how often those of little means are encouraged to plead guilty to crimes that didn’t even occur.
August 1, 2022
Needs to be fleshed out more, but good read on one of the many ways the US criminal legal system is flawed.
October 21, 2025
3.5 rounded down.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews