RELEASE: "Blind injustice: UC law professor's new book exposes wrongful convictions," published by University of Cincinnati Press on October 5, 2017.
SUB-HEADING: "University of Cincinnati's Ohio Innocence Project founder Mark Godsey’s new book “Blind Injustice” sheds light on a criminal justice system that sends far too many innocent people to prison."
GIST: "The Ohio Innocence Project
at the University of Cincinnati College of Law launched in 2003 with
the goal of using scientific advances to determine the innocence of
inmates who claim they were wrongly convicted. It’s since become one of the most active and successful innocence
projects worldwide, having freed two dozen wrongly convicted inmates
from Ohio prisons who together had served more than 450 years for crimes
they did not commit. UC College of Law Professor Mark Godsey
details the organization’s triumphs, along with the challenges,
psychology and politics that lead to wrongful convictions, in his new
book, “Blind Injustice: A Former Prosecutor Exposes the Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Convictions.” Godsey, the co-founder and director of the OIP in UC’s Lois and
Richard Rosenthal Institute for Justice, hopes the work will shed light
on a system he says is stacked against defendants who don’t stand a
chance if police, prosecutors or judges have what he refers to as
“tunnel vision,” a premature conclusion of guilt. “The discovery of hundreds if not thousands of wrongful convictions
in the past 25 years should be viewed by the criminal justice system as
indicative of a disaster,” writes Godsey. “A mass disaster.” He should know. A former federal prosecutor, Godsey says he views his book as both a memoir and a confessional. “I look back, and I see that I did things that I don’t agree with now,” he told UC Magazine earlier this year.
“I would love it if prosecutors and police officers read this book. It
is not an attack on them. We take certain roles, and we lose our
humanity in the process. I did that myself.”
ADVANCE COMMENTS: “A master storyteller, Mark Godsey’s rare triple-perspective of prosecutor, innocence champion, and law professor creates a unique and beautiful voice that not only contributes significantly to the innocence movement but makes the book gripping and hard to put down. A must-read for anyone who cares about justice.” Richard A. Leo, Hamill Family Professor of Law and Psychology at the University of San Francisco and author of “Police Interrogation and American Justice” .........“Mark Godsey’s journey from prosecuting in the storied U.S Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York to 'innocence lawyer' in his hometown of Cincinnati has yielded an important, candid, and scholarly meditation on the ‘cognitive’ traps that lead to wrongful convictions. This should be mandatory reading for all young federal and state prosecutors, not to mention judges and defense counsel.”Barry Scheck, Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law and cofounder of the Innocence Project “This careful exploration of the psychology of criminal investigations, written in an accessible and conversational tone, exposes how even the best-intentioned officers can get evidence wrong and how we can restore truth to the criminal justice system.”.........Brandon Garrett, Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law and author of “Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong”“America is in desperate need of heroes, and Mark Godsey, the director and co-founder of the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) and author of the compelling new book, “Blind Injustice: A Former Prosecutor Exposes the Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Convictions,” is one of the heroes we need now more than ever. .........…These are stories that push well beyond inducing tears and chills; they’re stories of humanity serving humanity in ways we seldom observe, with the greatest dual rewards of freedom and justice waiting at the end.”Bob Cesca, Salon.com
ADVANCE COMMENTS: “A master storyteller, Mark Godsey’s rare triple-perspective of prosecutor, innocence champion, and law professor creates a unique and beautiful voice that not only contributes significantly to the innocence movement but makes the book gripping and hard to put down. A must-read for anyone who cares about justice.” Richard A. Leo, Hamill Family Professor of Law and Psychology at the University of San Francisco and author of “Police Interrogation and American Justice” .........“Mark Godsey’s journey from prosecuting in the storied U.S Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York to 'innocence lawyer' in his hometown of Cincinnati has yielded an important, candid, and scholarly meditation on the ‘cognitive’ traps that lead to wrongful convictions. This should be mandatory reading for all young federal and state prosecutors, not to mention judges and defense counsel.”Barry Scheck, Professor of Law at Cardozo School of Law and cofounder of the Innocence Project “This careful exploration of the psychology of criminal investigations, written in an accessible and conversational tone, exposes how even the best-intentioned officers can get evidence wrong and how we can restore truth to the criminal justice system.”.........Brandon Garrett, Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law and author of “Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong”“America is in desperate need of heroes, and Mark Godsey, the director and co-founder of the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) and author of the compelling new book, “Blind Injustice: A Former Prosecutor Exposes the Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Convictions,” is one of the heroes we need now more than ever. .........…These are stories that push well beyond inducing tears and chills; they’re stories of humanity serving humanity in ways we seldom observe, with the greatest dual rewards of freedom and justice waiting at the end.”Bob Cesca, Salon.com
https://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/13040.ch02.pdf
The entire release can be found at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/c
