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Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (COL) Students
ASU Library One Search
To see a complete list of materials available in the library related to wrongful conviction, search the catalog for SUBJECT: Criminal Procedure -- United States or SUBJECT: Judicial Error -- United States. Otherwise, peruse the list below.
Autopsy of a Crime Lab (Brandon L. Garrett, 2021)
This book examines potentially faulty evidence, such as bite marks and even fingerprints, used to accuse defendants, as well as the many ways evidence could be made unreliable, such as contamination by police at the crime scene or faulty techniques in laboratories. These problems with evidence can lead to wrongful convictions.
The Feminist War on Crime: The Unexpected Role of Women's Liberation in Mass Incarceration (Aya Gruber, 2020)
Deploying vivid cases and unflinching analysis, The Feminist War on Crime documents the failure of the state to combat sexual and domestic violence through law and punishment. Also available as an eBook, from ProQuest Ebook Central.
Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System (M. Chris Fabricant, 2022)
Framed around defendants who were convicted on the basis of junk science, this book looks at the impact these forms of evidence still have on our justice system.
Manifesting Justice: Wrongly Convicted Women Reclaim Their Rights (Valena E. Beety, 2022)
Centered on the case of Leigh Stubbs, a woman who was denied a fair trial on the basis of her sexual orientation, this book examines the failures in America's criminal legal system and the reforms necessary to eliminate wrongful convictions—particularly with regards to women, the queer community, and people of color.
The Psychology and Sociology of Wrongful Convictions: Forensic Science Reform (Wendy J. Koen & C. Michael Bowers, 2018)
This book examines weaknesses in criminal investigations and potentially misleading or faulty evidence that can lead to convictions of innocents.
Race and Justice: Wrongful Convictions of African American Men (Marvin D. Free, Jr. & Mitch Ruesink, 2012)
This eBook, from ProQuest Ebook Central, presents a statistical analysis of wrongful convictions of Black men for crimes including murder and drug offenses. It discusses the reasons behind faulty convictions, including flaws in policing and the court system.
The Wrongful Convictions Reader (Russell D. Covey & Valena E. Beety eds., 2019)
This collection features brief meditations on miscarriages of justice, their causes, and potential remedies. The topics include attorney misconduct and incompetence, junk science, false confessions, and false guilty pleas elicited during pretrial procedures.
American Academy of Forensic Sciences
The American Academy of Forensic Sciences is a multidisciplinary professional organization that provides leadership to advance science and its application to the legal system.
Arizona Justice Project
When the Arizona Justice Project was established in 1998, it became the fifth organization in the United States created to help inmates overturn wrongful convictions. Today, there are close to 70 similar organizations worldwide.
Center on Wrongful Convictions
The Center on Wrongful Convictions is dedicated to identifying and rectifying wrongful convictions and other serious miscarriages of justice.
Death Penalty Information Center
The Death Penalty Information Center is a national non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment.
Innocence Network
The Innocence Network is an informal coalition of independent innocence organizations dedicated to combating wrongful convictions worldwide and reforming the criminal legal system.
Innocence Project
Founded in 1992 by visionary attorneys Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, the Innocence Project has been at the forefront of criminal justice reform, using DNA and other scientific advancements to prove wrongful conviction. Many states also have their own innocence projects.
Crime Policy Reports
The Congressional Research Service provides reports to Congress to support their legislative, oversight, and representational duties. All CRS reports are authoritative, objective, and nonpartisan. EveryCRSReport.com provides access to CRS reports that track criminal policy.
The National Registry of Exonerations
The registry collects, analyzes, and disseminates information about all known exonerations of innocent criminal defendants in the United States, from 1989 to the present. It publishes their stories and provides accessible, searchable online statistical data about their cases. It also conducts empirical studies of the process of exoneration and of factors that lead to the underlying wrongful convictions.
HeinOnline's Criminal Justice & Criminology (available on campus or remotely with ASURITE)
This database provides access to hundreds of journals and thousands of other materials pertaining to criminal justice including books, government reports, Congressional hearings, and Supreme Court briefs.
Journal of Forensic Sciences
The Journal of Forensic Sciences is the official publication of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. It is devoted to the publication of original investigations, observations, scholarly inquiries, and reviews in various branches of the forensic sciences, including anthropology, criminalistics, digital and multimedia sciences, engineering and applied sciences, pathology/biology, psychiatry and behavioral science, jurisprudence, odontology, questioned documents, and toxicology.
Police Quarterly
Police Quarterly emphasizes policy-oriented research of interest to both practitioners and academics. The only such journal published in North America, Police Quarterly seeks to publish both qualitative and quantitative police-related research.
The Wrongful Convictions Blog
The Center for the Global Study of Wrongful Conviction at the University of Cincinnati College of Law publishes this blog, which facilitates and enhances awareness and activism surrounding the problem of wrongful conviction of the innocent around the world.