The Wrongful Convictions Reader

Fueled by more than 2,000 exonerations of wrongfully convicted men and women, the "innocence revolution" is shaking the criminal justice system to its core. By gathering the leading research, law, and policy analysis into one volume, The Wrongful Convictions Reader explores the core contributing factors to wrongful convictions: false confessions, witness misidentifications, cognitive bias, junk science, police and prosecutorial misconduct, and ineffective assistance of counsel. Each chapter is divided into three sections: Readings; Current Law Overview which summarizes the key cases in the area, and Legal Materials, Exercises, and Media which provides relevant experiential activities. Examples from the Legal Materials, Exercises, and Media sections include: Recommended listening and viewing: timed excerpts from podcast episodes, films, and television clips; Oral advocacy exercises: mock bail arguments, parole hearings, testimony before the state legislature, presentations to the state rules committee, appellate oral arguments; Written advocacy exercises: practice motions and comparing state statutes; Issue spotting exercises: transcripts from interrogations and in-court testimony; Review: reflective essays, short answer questions, and true/false questions; Team exercises: plea negotiations; Discussion prompts and Actual wrongful conviction case documents This combination of materials makes the book more than a mere "reader" and makes it ideal for doctrinal as well as experiential courses.