Whenever a miscarriage of justice hits the headlines, it is tempting to dismiss it as an anomaly – a minor hiccup in an otherwise healthy judicial system. Yet the cases of injustice that feature in this book reveal that they are not just minor hiccups, but symptoms of a chronic illness plaguing the British legal system. Massive underfunding, catastrophic failures in policing and shoddy legal representation have all contributed to a deepening crisis – one that the watchdog set up for the very purpose of investigating miscarriages of justice has done precious little to remedy. Indeed, little has changed since the 'bad old days' of the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six. Award winning journalist Jon Robins lifts the lid on Britain's legal scandals and exposes the disturbing complacency that has led to many innocent people being deemed guilty, either in the eyes of the law or in the court of public opinion.

A man murdered...A man framed for the murder with only a short time to prove his innocence before the killer strikes again and strikes at him. A murder mystery set at the highest levels of corporate America where lives are played as a game, where the results are success...or death.

What began that night shocked Duke Universityand Durham, North Carolina. And it continues to captivate the nation: the Duke lacrosse team members‘ alleged rape of an African-American stripper and the unraveling of the case against them. In this ever-deepening American tragedy, Stuart Taylor Jr. and KC Johnson argue, law enforcement, a campaigning prosecutor, biased journalists, and left-leaning academics repeatedly refused to pursue the truth while scapegoats were made of these young men, recklessly tarnishing their lives. The story harbors multiple dramas, including the actions of a DA running for office; the inappropriate charges that should have been apparent to academics at Duke many months ago; the local and national media, who were so slow to take account of the publicly available evidence; and the appalling reactions of law enforcement, academia, and many black leaders. Until Proven Innocent is the only book that covers all five aspects of the case (personal, legal, academic, political, and media) in a comprehensive fashion. Based on interviews with key members of the defense team, many of the unindicted lacrosse players, and Duke officials, it is also the only book to include interviews with all three of the defendants, their families, and their legal teams. Taylor and Johnson‘s coverage of the Duke case was the earliest, most honest, and most comprehensive in the country, and here they take the idiocies and dishonesty of right- and left-wingers alike head on, shedding new light on the dangers of rogue prosecutors and police and a cultural tendency toward media-fueled travesties of justice. The context of the Duke case has vast import and contains likable heroes, unfortunate victims, and memorable villains—and in its full telling, it is captivating nonfiction with broad political, racial, and cultural relevance to our times.

This book explains the historical significance and introduction of the presumption of innocence into common law legal systems. It explains that the presumption should be seen as reflecting notions of moral comfort around judgment of others. Specifically, when one is asked to make a judgment about the guilt or otherwise of a person accused of wrongdoing, the default position should be to do nothing. This reflects the very serious consequences of what we do when we decide someone is guilty of wrongdoing and is not a step to be taken lightly. Traditionally, decision makers have only taken it when they are morally comfortable with that decision. It then documents how legislators in a range of common law jurisdictions have undermined the presumption of innocence, through measures such as reverse onus provisions, allowing or requiring inferences to be made against an accused, redefining offenses and defenses in novel ways to minimize the burden on the prosecutor, and by dressing proceedings as civil when they are in substance criminal. Courts have too easily acceded to such measures, in the process permitting accused persons to be convicted although there is reasonable doubt as to their guilt, and where they are not guilty of sufficiently blameworthy conduct to attract criminal sanction. It finds that the courts must be prepared to re-assert the prime importance of the presumption of innocence, only permitting criminal sanctions to be imposed where they are morally certain that the accused did that of which they have been accused, and morally comfortable that the conduct being addressed is worthy of the kind of criminal sanction which prosecutors seek to impose. Courts must be morally comfortable about the finding of guilt, and the imposition of the criminal penalty in a given case. They have lost sight of this moral underpinning to criminal law process and substance, and it must be regained.

Innocent until proven guilty or guilty until proven innocent? D. Corbett Everidge cannot vote, own a firearm, or hold public office: he is a convicted felon. But did he actually commit the crime? In this true-life legal drama, former magistrate D. Corbett Everidge chronicles the events of the summer of 2005 and the ensuing criminal trial that led to a felony conviction and the end of his criminal justice career. He then asks you to assess the evidence and make your own reasonable decision about whether he is, indeed, innocent or guilty as charged. Everidge gives personal insight into his career and background to illustrate that guilt in a complex society is not always a matter of black and white. He also challenges many beliefs regarding the modern criminal justice system in the United States, effectively drawing a line between the theoretical and the actual. Ultimately, Guilty Until Proven Innocent is an intriguing literary criminal trial in which you decide the outcome. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what is your verdict?

The author was accused of molesting a child and spends 3 years in the court system to clear himself of those false charges.

"Crimes against children are unspeakable. The natural instinct of our society is to protect our children at all cost. In the process, collateral damage has been done to teachers wrongly accused of abuse. Colorado Education Association Attorney Greg Lawler has been fighting for teachers' rights for fifteen years. [book title] examines thirteen of Lawler's cases in detail and explores the societal pressures that led to the persecution of innocent teachers. Using real cases that Lawler has litigated, [book title] explains the role of legislators, the media and the public in the growing phenomenon of teachers being falsely accused of abuse against students." --Back cover.