Smoke but No Fire

May 15, 2020
A former New York City public defender turns a spotlight on those wrongly convicted for crimes that were never committed. It's bad enough when the wrong suspect is convicted of a crime and the guilty party goes free. But what if there was no crime at all? In a study that will make readers question many of the foundational elements of the American legal system, Henry, now a professor of justice studies, draws from academic research, case studies, anecdotes, and personal experience to show how often the innocent have been punished--e.g., murders that were actually suicides; alleged drug deals in which police planted drugs and there was no other criminal transaction; or even "murder convictions for the deaths of people who never existed." Why does this happen? As the author demonstrates, cognitive biases lead police, lawyers, and judges to suspect that certain minorities--young black men in particular--are more likely to be guilty, and confirmation bias causes them to lock in on the narrative they are already convinced is true, even when it is obvious from a different perspective--perhaps that of an appellate court--how flimsy the evidence was to begin with. In a series of damning chapters, Henry shifts the focus among the various participants in the process, showing how forensic scientists see themselves as part of the law enforcement team and sometimes testify to proof that isn't scientifically conclusive; how police must boost arrest numbers to meet quotas; and how prosecutors and judges elected on tough-on-crime platforms rely on convictions to keep score. Henry systematically exposes widespread corruption and lies and also points out the surprisingly frequent instances of innocent suspects pleading guilty because the process of plea bargaining makes it a gamble worth taking. While the prose isn't riveting, the author's accumulation of evidence is revelatory. An eye-opening book that suggests how commonplace are miscarriages of justice in the U.S.

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