Jim Petro - False Justice

Revised edition published 2015
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2015 Taylor & Francis

The right of Jim Petro and Nancy Petro to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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First edition published in 2010 by Kaplan Publishing

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Petro, Jim, 1948 author.

False justice : eight myths that convict the innocent / by Jim Petro and

Nancy Petro. Revised Edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Judicial errorUnited States. 2. False imprisonmentUnited States. 3. Criminal

justice, Administration ofUnited States. I. Petro, Nancy, author. II. Title.

KF9756.P47 2014
345.730122dc23
2013050310

ISBN: 978-1-138-78299-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-78300-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-76886-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Minion
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Original publisher: False Justice: Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent, Kaplan Publishing 2010

This revised edition of False Justice is dedicated to the man who prompted our awakening to wrongful conviction,

Mark Godsey

Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and Director of the Ohio Innocence Project

and

to the countless men and women in our justice system who are committed to pursuing truth and true justice, not just winning the contest.

WHEN FALSE JUSTICE WAS first published in January 2011, Nancy and I hoped to share our journey of awakening to wrongful conviction (convicting the innocent) not only with professionals working in the criminal justice system, but also with students, who in studying criminology, law, and a wide array of academic disciplines, soon will have impact on the justice system, conventional wisdom, and public policy. We are delighted to have the opportunity to partner with Routledge, a global publisher of quality academic books, in bringing this revised edition of False Justice to students and avid learners internationally.

While we did not write a textbook per se, we were thrilled when teachers, instructors, and college and university professors began to assign False Justice in criminology, law, sociology, public administration, and other courses of study. False Justice has been utilized in ways we never imagined, from use as a wrongful conviction primer for law and graduate law students working for their university-affiliated Innocence Projects, to inclusion in police training in Rwanda.

False Justice is a short enough read to fit into many course syllabuses and can set the stage for invigorated discussion and study over a wide range of topics including crime, justice, injustice, punishment, ethics, and public policy. The book can elevate interest and excitement in various course subjects through its honest peering into the real workings of police, investigators, interrogators, criminologists, sociologists, forensic scientists, snitches, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, jurors, legislators, and public policy shapers.

C. Ronald Huff, Professor Emeritus of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvinea Fellow and Past President of the American Society of Criminology and a pioneer in recognizing and researching the scope and causes of wrongful convictionhas used the book the past two years with 100+ undergrads each time. The book is an excellent fit for my course and the students enjoy it as well. Its a good combination of scholarship and first-hand experience with specific cases in the criminal justice system that help students understand how errors can occur, he explains. I recommend the book for courses on wrongful convictions, miscarriages of justice, and other general courses on the criminal justice system, because students need to be taught not just the idealistic way in which the system is supposed to work but also the problems we have in realizing those ideals.

Professor Emeritus in Criminal Justice at Indiana University, Hal Pepinsky, said, for any criminology or criminal justice course[ False Justice ] is a rare gem in critical writing about criminal justice. Spread the word.

The consistent feedback that we have received from faculty and students is that the book is powerful, important, fast-paced, compelling, fascinating, disturbing, and enlightening. Students have emailed to tell us that this was one text they actually enjoyed. Many readers have called it a page-turner and said it should be mandatory reading for those in the criminal justice system and for citizens of all walks.