Surviving Justice America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated [Paperback]

Innocent, but imprisoned—troubling stories of wrongful conviction

Surviving Justicepresents oral histories of thirteen people from all walks of life, who, through a combination of all-too-common factors— overzealous prosecutors, inept defense lawyers, coercive interrogation tactics, eyewitness misidentification—found themselves imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. The stories these exonerated men and women tell are spellbinding, heartbreaking, and ultimately inspiring.

Among the narrators:

Paul Terry, who spent twenty-seven years wrongfully imprisoned, and emerged psychologically devastated and barely able to communicate.

Beverly Monroe, an organic chemist who was coerced into falsely confessing to the murder of her lover. Freed after seven years, she faces the daunting task of rebuilding her life from the ground up.

Joseph Amrine, who was sentenced to death for murder. Seventeen years later, when DNA evidence exonerated him, Amrine emerged from prison with nothing but the fourteen dollars in his inmate account.

Lola Vollenis a physician specializing in the aftermath of large-scale human rights abuses. She has worked with survivors of systemic injustices in Somalia, South Africa, Israel, Croatia, and Kosovo. Working with Physicians for Human Rights, she developed Bosnia’s mass-grave exhumation and identification program. She is the founder of the Life After Exoneration Program, which helps exonerated prisoners in the United States with their transitions after release. She is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of International Studies, co-editor of the Voice of Witness series, and a practicing clinician.

Dave Eggersis the editor ofMcSweeney’sand the author of four books, includingWhat is the WhatandA Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the winner of the Adlƒ4