Mara Leveritt, author and authority on the West Memphis 3 case in Arkansas, published an article on the role of the media in Arkansas’s troubled system of justice.

Japanese Legal System Protects Prosecutors

John Grisham has a new book, The Confession, a true to life tale of a false confession and the death penalty set in Texas.

Rubin Hurricane Carter’s new book,”Eye of the Hurricane: My Path from Darkness to Freedom.”

Ten years ago Brenton Butler went on trial for a murder he did not commit based on a false and coerced confession and faulty i.d. testimony. The case became the subject of an Academy Award winning film -Murder on a Sunday Morning – and has led to significant changes in the interrogation practices of Jacksonville officers. Whereas they once opposed electronic recording, it is now standard practice in homicide case.

The Connecticut Supreme Court, in Conn. v. Lockhart, refused to require electronic recording of police interrogations under either the due process clause or its supervisory powers. Donald Connery, longtime advocate for recording, and the author of Guilty Until Proven Innocent, published a powerful Op-ed in the Hartford Courant and the paper also editorialized in favor of recording. The legislature convenes again next year and the dissent will surely be seen as a clarion call to the legislature to take action, especially given that a Pilot Project in a number of sites has met with universal approval of recording. Steve Drizen

Ryan Ferguson serving a 40-year sentence for murder, is innocent according to false confessions expert Prof. Richard Leo and most others.

New York Times article by John Schwartz on study of 40 false confession exonerees.

A compelling documentary about how four innocent men confessed to rape and murder they did not commit and served 13 years in prison before they were pardoned.