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

by Stanley Cohen

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Justice, Politics

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 3, 2003

About the author

There are more than one Stanley Cohen author.

*Stanley Cohen (1922-): USA biochemist
*Stanley Cohen (1928–2010): USA crime novelist
*Stanley Cohen (1934-): USA sport writer
*Stanley Cohen (1937-): USA biologist
*Stanley Cohen (1942–2013): South Africa-British sociologist

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye opening and well written--a few too many examples of wrongful convictions, so I skipped around...after a few, you get the hint. It's all appalling.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The death penalty in America is meant to be a deterrent to other criminals: don't do crime or this might happen to you. And yet the statistics don't bear it out. Multiple studies across multiple states across multiple decades show that the death penalty does not lower the crime rate or affect it at all. This book is about the death penalty in America and the all too frightening ways that the prosecutors, the police, and the justice system gets it all wrong.

There are innocent men on death row. If you don't believe me, you just need to read this book. This author has compiled a hundred or more stories of innocent men put on death row. First he organizes their stories by how they have come to end up on death row: some ended up because an eyewitness falsely claimed that they were the guilty party, sometimes it was police misconduct, sometimes it was by 'junk science.' Then for each criminal or pair of criminals, he wrote up a short little synopsis of the crime for which they were charged, why they were charged and why it was wrong and how they were ultimately freed.

I'll be honest. This book will make you righteously angry that the justice system allows such flagrant abuses and allows some of the things mentioned herein to happen. It made me angry. This is a book about systemic racism, because let's be honest here, the men going to death row are not rich white guys but poor black men. The author actually says something like 2/3 of death row is populated by black men. This is a system that is broken and desperately needs fixing. NOW. Yesterday. I won't say that I enjoyed this book because any book about injustice is not enjoyable. It is eye-opening. It is an issue that needs to be brought out to the light of day and exposed and fixed.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure that a rating is appropriate, or apt, to the nature of the book. Its subject is all-important. The actual writing is simple, basic, some cases are briefly written of while others are tricky to follow (summaries of trials, condensing years of appeals into a few paragraphs) but this is all just trivial to what’s really being pointed out: no more death penalty.

As a reading experience, the book is depressing, especially the brutality of murders of the really helpless people. It’s hard to take in, nay, impossible for virtually all of us to know what death row is like. There are cases in this book of men being fitted for the burial suit hours before execution. Innocent men. A couple cases particularly touched me because the wrongfully convicted men had derelict backgrounds or were guilty of other crimes, they were aware of their transgressions, but because of their character, were suspect for some unrelated crime that would put them up for the death penalty.

Four stars may be a lot for this book but it’s kind of essential.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hesitated to give this 4 stars but decided to because the subject matter is so important & people who are ardent death penalty supporters should see how often it is misapplied.

As a reader, it didn't hold my attention very well simply because the author was seeking to include so many cases that some only warranted a page in description. This is why I normally only read true crime or other miscellaneous true account books which deal with only 1-3 situations. I like a lot of detail.

It was so sad to know how many people were freed after being wrongly incarcerated & makes me to shudder to think how many did lose their lives. We need to do better as a society.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What a book. It sure will open your eyes to our criminal justice system. Why can't we all do the right thing? This is why no one wants to be on a jury! Convicting innocent people of crimes. Crooked police men, attorneys, judges, citizens and victims who lie. Wow! How can we fix this?

[Angela]

This book is chronicled of people, innocent of otherwise, who have been released from death rows across America for a variety of reasons. It pinpoints common reasons for wrongful convictions and raises questions about the practice of the death penalty in America.

[David Szatkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is written largely as a series of examples of innocent persons being sentenced to death. The book shows how the theoretical system of capital punishment does not work in reality.

[Dee Halzack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent though very saddening book. Anyone who thinks our court system always dispenses justice, or that everyone in jail must be guilty, should read this.

Based on information on cases where convicts, many from death row, were freed because DNA testing proved they could not have committed the crimes for which they were convicted. The statistics on how many are convicted on the basis of obviously incorrect eyewitness testimony and/or police and/or prosecutorial misconduct are mind-boggling, and frightening.

Even sadder are the statistics on public acceptance of the error rate. In one case a DA was found in flagrante delicto doing stuff that resulted in an innocent person being sent away for a long time and was reelected with 80% of the vote. Apparently being tough on crime is more important to many people than being right about the perpetrators, which, of course, only encourages misconduct. Don't people realize that if it could happen to these innocent men, it could happen to ANYone?

I was somewhat familiar with the information presented but unaware of the extent to which it occurred, or just how much being saved from prison as an innocent person depended on money and/or having the luck to get a good lawyer interested and believing in one's innocence enough to fight for one's freedom after having been railroaded. Once convicted, you're presumed guilty until you can absolutely proved your innocence; no more reasonable doubt, often even when new evidence previously withheld turns up.

A quick read, but not an easy one because it raises too many troubling questions.

[Matthew]

This is a great book for everyone to read. It shows how the criminal justice system is not a perfect system. From police tactics to misidentification to coerced testimony. With DNA testing, it has helped convicted people go free.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

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