I listened to this in just two days. Dan Slepian wrote a compelling and totally engrossing story of a series of men who landed in prison for crimes they did not commit, due to sloppy investigations, disregard of significant exculpatory evidence and more. JJ, who became Slepian’s friend eventually, despite his best efforts over many years to maintain his journalistic objectivity while producing stories for Nightline that sometimes included these stories when his superiors found them sufficiently compelling. Many of us, including me, struggle with how criminal justice and laws that limit reintegration into society after serving time for various kinds of crimes should be changed. Slepian deftly humanizes not only his actually innocent subjects, but also those serving time for crimes they committed. It is a complex subject. How do you address employment, housing and education for people convicted of serious crimes or with a long record of convictions? Slepian makes use think about this, although he does not directly address it. He poses the issues, he makes it very clear that 20 years in jail and counting for JJ was Slepian’s daughter’s whole life and then some. He follows J’J’s sons and his mother. But JJ is just one of several stories told and there are people who had an easier time with the courts, albeit only one felt magically fast.
The fate of innocent people and the discovery of potential perpetrators today is influenced by DNA. In the Sing Sing Files, DNA played no role. Convictions often relied solely on alleged eye witnesses picking someone from a photo array or lineup. One involves a teenager whose confession was coerced. We hear the voices of these men through Slepian and sometimes in person. He has done valuable, moral work for them. Highly recommend this book.
They Called me Bookworm 