Every year, we have students who study The Innocence Project
and wrongful convictions. They and others
will certainly be interested in the soon-to-be-released ANATOMY OF
INNOCENCE edited by Laura Caldwell, founder/director of Life
After Innocence at Loyola University Chicago School of
Law and by and Leslie S. Klinger, best-selling author. This text features the stories, fascinating in
themselves, of 15 exonerated individuals, all written with the help of
prominent mystery and thriller writers like Sara Paretsky. For example, Phil
Margolin relates the story of Bill Dillon, a Floridian wrongfully convicted of
murder who spent more than two and a half decades in prison, only to be
released after acting as his own lawyer.
Each chapter seems to focus on an
aspect of criminal justice (e.g., arrest, trial, appeal, eventual freedom). One is written by John Mankiewicz and deals
with Jerry Miller, imprisoned in Illinois for a quarter of a century. This chapter
points out how corrupt the Chicago police force was, working to convict a man
whose palm print and blood type did not match evidence found at the scene. Connections
to Chicago are plentiful since other Illinois exonerees like Juan Rivera and
David Bates are profiled. New Trier grad
Scott Turow wrote the introduction and ANATOMY OF INNOCENCE also contains
a previously unpublished essay by Arthur Miller discussing guilt and innocence. Starred review from Kirkus.
Just today, a teacher and I also talked with a student about
how incarceration rates vary by race. A new book, RACIAL PROFILING
by Alison Behnke, deals with that topic and much more. Chapter headings are (1)
Prejudice and Privilege; (2) Historic Inequality; (3) Contemporary Inequality;
(4) Criminal Justice and Injustice; (5) Counterterrorism and Islamophobia and (6)
Calls for Change. Although only 160 pages,
this text contains a glossary, notes, bibliography and sources for further
information, including books, documentaries and websites. It will provide a comprehensive
entry point for many research projects. RACIAL PROFILING received
starred reviews from Kirkus and from School Library Journal who called
this book a “mandatory addition to teen collections.”
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