Beginning in 2001, University of Alaska, Fairbanks journalism professor, Brian O'Donoghue enlisted the aid of his students - over several years - to investigate a 1997 murder in which 4 men were convicted - he believed wrongly.
In 2013, the Innocence Project joined in and
…more finally, the convictions were overturned and the men were freed.
It was an interesting idea to involve journalism students - who actually did excellent work in turning up sources and evidence. What was so disheartening was the time it took to unravel what actually happened. To some extent, it shows how difficult it can be to arrive at the truth, but also how when the pressure is on to solve the crime quickly, how easy it can be to railroad someone.
In this case three of the four were Athabascan Indians and the victim was white - which many think contributed to the immediate assumption of guilt and conviction despite lack of clear evidence. What was most troubling was the refusal of the prosecutor to seriously question the methods of achieving confessions, the problem with their star witness and most importantly the insistence that the confession of the actual killer (admitted not only to his lawyer, but also to a prison guard) should not be permitted to be heard. I hadn't realized until reading this that one of the exceptions to lawyer/client confidentiality occurs when an admission reveals that an innocent party has been convicted. And, of course, the admission to the prison guard was not confidential in any case. Yet she still argued for suppression.
The only criticism I have of the book was that there was too much detail. Many of the witnesses interviewed - at length - really had little to nothing to add to finding the truth. It did illustrate how difficult investigations of this sort are, but it was a slog at times to read all of it. Also, while the author was writing about his experience, some of the details of his life - like his trip to India, didn't add much to the story either.
Overall, I would recommend the book as a treatise in how the justice system often does not work without a lot of help from committed investigators. (less)
