Mental Exoneration

Mental Exoneration PDF Author: Shelbia Carter Wiley
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1546242708
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Book Description
When one thinks of exoneration, the first thing that comes to mind is incarceration. One may think that a person was sent to prison for a crime committed, but after reviewing solid evidence, it was discovered that the person was not guilty of the alleged crime or has served enough time for a miniscule offense that did not warrant a long-term prison sentence. This book is not about a physical prison at all; it depicts the life of a young girl who was mentally incarcerated. She was thrust into repetitive sexual abuse beginning at a very young age and continuing through adolescence. After blaming herself for many years, she finally had her sentence of agony, pain, frustration, etc. exonerated.

Mental Exoneration

Mental Exoneration PDF Author: Shelbia Carter Wiley
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1546242708
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Book Description
When one thinks of exoneration, the first thing that comes to mind is incarceration. One may think that a person was sent to prison for a crime committed, but after reviewing solid evidence, it was discovered that the person was not guilty of the alleged crime or has served enough time for a miniscule offense that did not warrant a long-term prison sentence. This book is not about a physical prison at all; it depicts the life of a young girl who was mentally incarcerated. She was thrust into repetitive sexual abuse beginning at a very young age and continuing through adolescence. After blaming herself for many years, she finally had her sentence of agony, pain, frustration, etc. exonerated.

Convicting the Innocent

Convicting the Innocent PDF Author: Brandon L. Garrett
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674060989
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
On January 20, 1984, Earl Washington—defended for all of forty minutes by a lawyer who had never tried a death penalty case—was found guilty of rape and murder in the state of Virginia and sentenced to death. After nine years on death row, DNA testing cast doubt on his conviction and saved his life. However, he spent another eight years in prison before more sophisticated DNA technology proved his innocence and convicted the guilty man. DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free. In this unsettling in-depth analysis, Brandon Garrett examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 wrongfully convicted people to be exonerated by DNA testing. Based on trial transcripts, Garrett’s investigation into the causes of wrongful convictions reveals larger patterns of incompetence, abuse, and error. Evidence corrupted by suggestive eyewitness procedures, coercive interrogations, unsound and unreliable forensics, shoddy investigative practices, cognitive bias, and poor lawyering illustrates the weaknesses built into our current criminal justice system. Garrett proposes practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence, and less on fallible human memory. Very few crimes committed in the United States involve biological evidence that can be tested using DNA. How many unjust convictions are there that we will never discover? Convicting the Innocent makes a powerful case for systemic reforms to improve the accuracy of all criminal cases.

Retrospective Assessment of Mental States in Litigation

Retrospective Assessment of Mental States in Litigation PDF Author: Robert I. Simon
Publisher: American Psychiatric Pub
ISBN: 1585627798
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
"Why did the defendant do it?" Mental health professionals are asked to help courts answer this question. To serve justice, the law calls for evidence of the mental state at the time a crime is committed, of suicide intent in civil litigation, and of mental capacity in contract litigation. The law asks psychiatrists and psychologists to retrospectively determine mental states -- a daunting task made even more difficult by the passage of time, the uncertain credibility of witnesses, the paucity of collateral sources of information, and often the death of the person in question. This is the first book dedicated entirely to the retrospective assessment of mental states. This fascinating book explores the role of the psychiatrist and psychologist, as an expert witness in litigation, in rendering a retrospective judgment of an individual's mental state. Distinguished contributors apply their expertise in psychiatry, psychology, and the law to address the problems of retrospective assessment. With the goal of developing guidelines for more accurate retrospective assessment of mental states, they present topics such as Guidelines for conducting retrospective assessments in children and adults Guidelines for the retrospective assessment without benefit of direct examination Assessments of suicide cases in both civil and criminal litigation Psychological testing and interviewing techniques that may assist in retrospective assessment Methods and analysis to help clinicians and attorneys critically evaluate the search for "truth" about the past. This remarkable book will prove indispensable for helping clinicians, lawyers, and judges better understand the complex and difficult process of retrospective reconstruction of mental states.

Levon and Kennedy

Levon and Kennedy PDF Author: Isabelle Armand
Publisher: powerHouse Books
ISBN: 9781576878842
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Two African American men from poor, rural Mississippi wrongfully convicted for crimes they didn't commit. Lost years of their lives spent in jail and finally released a decade a half later thanks to the Innocence Project and DNA testing. This is their life for all to see. In the early 1990s in a small disadvantaged community in rural Mississippi, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer were wrongfully convicted in separate trials of capital murder. Brooks, despite an alibi, was sentenced to life and was imprisoned for 18 years. A few years later Brewer was convicted and sentenced to death. He was incarcerated for 15. In 2008 the Innocence Project in New York exonerated both men. Vanessa Potkin, longtime attorney at the Innocence Project, along with co-founder of the Innocence Project, Peter Neufeld, spent years investigating the two cases, and discovered a link between them that subsequent DNA testing substantiated. The results of that testing led authorities to the real perpetrator who was responsible for both murders and then to the exonerations of Brooks and Brewer. Without the work of the Innocence Project, Potkin, Neufeld, and a host of others, these photographs-of lives lost, forgotten, and then regained-would not have been possible. The photographs' poignance is made all the more powerful as one contemplates their stark, deeply felt beauty against the haunting realization that they were almost never able to be made or seen at all. The evidence against Brooks and Brewer consisted primarily of bite mark matching evidence. A prosecution expert testified that in both cases multiple bite marks covered the victims' bodies and matched the defendants' teeth impressions. A group of experts retained by the Innocence Project later determined that the marks were not bite marks at all. As a forensic discipline, bite mark matching has come under serious criticism in recent years and led to the exoneration of multiple other prisoners. This same prosecution expert testified not only in Brooks's and Brewer's cases, but a host of others in Mississippi and the region. The extent of the damage is still unknown. In 2012, photographer Isabelle Armand came across an article about these two cases. Such a scenario seemed unbelievable. How, why, and where could this happen? How does one cope with wrongful conviction? For the next five years, she spent several weeks each year documenting Brooks, Brewer, their families and their environment. This intimate photographic essay, akin to looking in a mirror, puts faces on the victims of wrongful convictions. It seeks to raise consciousness, challenge popular perceptions about poverty and inequality in our criminal justice system, and demands that we confront these critical issues.

The Sociology of the Mentally Disordered Offender

The Sociology of the Mentally Disordered Offender PDF Author: Tom Mason
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317882806
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
In recent years mentally disordered offenders have attracted considerable attention in the media and there has been heated public debate as to the best treatment and prevention of re-offending. Simultaneously there has been a significant increase in the amount of research, specialist courses and training devoted to this particular, high profile area of mental health care. This is as a result of considerable public pressure to develop effective theory and practice for diagnosing and treating this patient group.A Sociology of the Mentally Disordered Offender provides a concise, and most importantly, accessible guide to the main theoretical issues from a sociological perspective as a counterbalance to the predominant medical model. Having established a theoretical framework through the exploration of topics such as the relationship between crime and mental disorder the authors look at the processes by which offenders are referred either to criminal justice or the mental health service system, their subsequent treatment and management, and the problem of re-offending. A final chapter looks at ways in which care and management of these patients may be effectively developed in the future.

The Role of Mental Illness in Criminal Trials: The insanity defense

The Role of Mental Illness in Criminal Trials: The insanity defense PDF Author: Jane Campbell Moriarty
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780815335733
Category : Capacity and disability
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Living on Death Row

Living on Death Row PDF Author: Hans Toch
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
ISBN: 9781433829000
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
PROSE Award Finalist for Psychology This book synthesizes scholarly reflections with personal accounts from prison administrators and inmates to show the harsh reality of life on death row.

Reform of the Federal Criminal Laws

Reform of the Federal Criminal Laws PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Criminal law
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description


The Innocent Man

The Innocent Man PDF Author: John Grisham
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307576019
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LOOK FOR THE NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES • “Both an American tragedy and [Grisham’s] strongest legal thriller yet, all the more gripping because it happens to be true.”—Entertainment Weekly John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction: a true crime masterpiece that tells the story of small town justice gone terribly awry. In the Major League draft of 1971, the first player chosen from the state of Oklahoma was Ron Williamson. When he signed with the Oakland A’s, he said goodbye to his hometown of Ada and left to pursue his dreams of big league glory. Six years later he was back, his dreams broken by a bad arm and bad habits. He began to show signs of mental illness. Unable to keep a job, he moved in with his mother and slept twenty hours a day on her sofa. In 1982, a twenty-one-year-old cocktail waitress in Ada named Debra Sue Carter was raped and murdered, and for five years the police could not solve the crime. For reasons that were never clear, they suspected Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. The two were finally arrested in 1987 and charged with capital murder. With no physical evidence, the prosecution’s case was built on junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snitches and convicts. Dennis Fritz was found guilty and given a life sentence. Ron Williamson was sent to death row. If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you. Don’t miss Framed, John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction since The Innocent Man, co-authored with Centurion Ministries founder Jim McCloskey.

Exonerated

Exonerated PDF Author: Robert J. Norris
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479821993
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
The fascinating story behind the innocence movement's quest for justice. Documentaries like Making a Murderer, the first season of Serial, and the cause célèbre that was the West Memphis Three captured the attention of millions and focused the national discussion on wrongful convictions. This interest is warranted: more than 1,800 people have been set free in recent decades after being convicted of crimes they did not commit. In response to these exonerations, federal and state governments have passed laws to prevent such injustices; lawyers and police have changed their practices; and advocacy organizations have multiplied across the country. Together, these activities are often referred to as the “innocence movement.” Exonerated provides the first in-depth look at the history of this movement through interviews with key leaders such as Barry Scheck and Rob Warden as well as archival and field research into the major cases that brought awareness to wrongful convictions in the United States. Robert Norris also examines how and why the innocence movement took hold. He argues that while the innocence movement did not begin as an organized campaign, scientific, legal, and cultural developments led to a widespread understanding that new technology and renewed investigative diligence could both catch the guilty and free the innocent. Exonerated reveals the rich background story to this complex movement.