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One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice
by Dan Slepian
An NBC Dateline producer's cinematic account of his two-decade journey navigating the broken criminal justice system to help free six innocent men.
In 2002, Dan Slepian, a veteran producer for NBC's Dateline, received a tip from a Bronx homicide detective that two men were serving twenty-five years to life in prison for a 1990 murder they did not commit.
Haunted by what the detective had told him, Slepian began an investigation of the case that eventually resulted in freedom for the two men and launched Slepian on a two-decade personal and professional journey into a deeply flawed justice system fiercely resistant to rectifying―or even acknowledging―its mistakes and their consequences.
The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice is Slepian's account of challenging that system. The story follows Slepian on years of prison visits, court hearings, and street reporting that led to a series of powerful Dateline episodes and eventually to freedom for four other men and to an especially deep and lasting friendship with one of them, Jon-Adrian "JJ" Velazquez. From his cell in Sing Sing, JJ aided Slepian in his investigations until his own release in 2021 after decades in prison.
Like Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy, The Sing Sing Files is a deeply personal account of wrongful imprisonment and the flaws in our justice system, and a powerful argument for reckoning and accountability. Slepian's extraordinary book, at once painful and full of hope, shines a light on an injustice whose impact the nation has only begun to confront.
"[A] gripping, highly effective true-crime synthesis. An excellent addition to the body of work documenting a pervasive societal injustice." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Slepian tells his subects' stories with rigor and compassion, and persuasively argues that America's justice system is 'designed to easily imprison the innocent' in the name of closing cases quickly. This is difficult to shake." —Publishers Weekly
"Dan Slepian has written a book that is as informative as it is enraging. In these gripping case studies of innocent men wrongfully convicted, you learn how and why the truth often does not prevail in the American justice system. You also get a glimpse of the strength of the human spirit and of heroic efforts to right these wrongs. The stories are inspiring and so is the author. He has spent a career 'given the buried voice sound,' as one incarcerated man put it. This volume is on full blast with this tour-de-force. This is a must-read for anyone who cares about criminal justice, mass incarceration, or humanity." ―Rachel Barkow, author of Prisoners of Politics: Breaking the Cycle of Mass Incarceration and Professor at NYU, School of Law
"This passionate, gripping, and moving chronicle of a skeptical journalist's twenty year journey investigating injustice leads him, remarkably, to six innocent men, close friends, and a nuanced understanding of the humanity, resilience, and limitless potential of those we imprison, guilty or innocent. Dan Slepian's engrossing insider's narrative lays bare the infuriating incapacity and willful blindness of New York prosecutors, police, defense lawyers, and judges to recognize and correct wrongful convictions. The Sing Sing Files is a vitally important book that inspires hope that we can and will do better." ―Barry Scheck, Co-Founder and Special Counsel, the Innocence Project
"While recounting his heroic efforts to free six wrongfully convicted men, Dan Slepian uncovers the tremendous obstacles to truth and justice that plague our criminal legal system. He shows that the problems are both systemic and personal, as institutions and actors protect their own reputations rather than fix the egregious mistakes and wrongdoings that have ruined the lives of countless people and their families. The Sing Sing Files should inspire readers to create a new generation of leaders who will genuinely pursue justice." ―Marc Howard, director of the Prisons and Justice Initiative at Georgetown University
This information about The Sing Sing Files was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Dan Slepian is an award-winning journalist at NBC News and a veteran producer of its signature newsmagazine, Dateline. Over more than two decades at NBC, Slepian has spearheaded dozens of documentaries and hidden-camera investigations, and is known for his in-depth reporting about the criminal legal system and, specifically, wrongful convictions. He has received three Edward R. Murrow Awards, more than a dozen Emmys, and has been recognized by multiple justice organizations across the country. Slepian was the host of Letters from Sing Sing, a podcast that was #1 on Apple's true crime charts and a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting.
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