Champions of Innocence

Inside the Fight Against Wrongful Convictions

Saul Kassin

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9781493093830
• Subtopic: Criminal Law

Twenty-four powerful voices from the frontlines of justice reveal how they're revolutionizing a system that fails the innocent.

Over the years, history has uncovered thousands of wrongful convictions in the United States, involving children and adults, men and women of all backgrounds and colors, and in countries throughout the world. Unimaginable to most, and truly terrifying for some, being convicted for a crime that one did not commit is a bizarrely tortuous and profoundly isolating experience. But a decades-long movement is gaining more traction and renown by the day for their efforts to seek justice for victims. Champions of Innocence showcases real-life stories from inside the innocence movement, from lawyers to forensic scientists, journalists and authors, and, most importantly, from exonerees themselves that work for life-changing reforms. Edited by Saul Kassin, who pioneered the scientific study of false confessions, and featuring an introduction by bestselling author and innocent activist John Grisham, contributors include:

- Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld: Co-founders of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization founded in New York City in 1992 dedicated to using DNA technology to reexamine postconviction claims of innocence.

- Jim McCloskey: Founder of the nonprofit Centurion Ministries in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1983, the first ever organization dedicated to freeing individuals who had been wrongfully convicted. Since then, Centurion Ministries has presided over the release of 70 innocent individuals from prison.

- Elizabeth Loftus: A cognitive psychologist who pioneered research on eyewitness memory—and how misinformation can produce false accounts. As an expert in court, she challenged convictions that were based on implanted false “memories.”

- Eric S. Lander: A mathematician, geneticist, and professor of biology at MIT and Harvard Medical School, he has devoted his career to deciphering the human genome. Since his 1989 expert testimony that then-current method of interpreting DNA evidence risked false positive matches, Lander became a principal leader of the Human Genome Project and founder of the Broad Institute.

- Jarrett Adams: In 1999, 17-year-old Jarrett Adams was sentenced to 28 years in a maximum security prison for a crime he did not commit. After serving nearly ten years, he was exonerated, earned a law degree, co-founded the nonprofit Life After Justice, and wrote the memoir Redeeming Justice.

- Erin Moriarty: A lawyer, Emmy Award-winning TV news reporter, correspondent for CBS 48 Hours, and founder of the true-crime podcast, “My Life of Crime,” Erin Moriarty investigates and reports on wrongful convictions.

- Amanda Knox: In 2009, 20-year-old Amanda Knox was convicted of murder in Perugia, Italy, as a result of a coerced confession that witnesses later discredited and flawed forensic science. Although she was definitively acquitted in 2015, the social media frenzy that trailed her through the case.

… and many more. The twenty-four stories told in Champions of Innocence will simultaneously blow your mind, piss you off, break your heart, and, if you’re lucky, fill you with a sense of relief that this did not happen to you.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction: Forty Years and Counting
• PART I: FOUNDERS
• PART II: SCIENTISTS, LEGAL SCHOLARS, AND POLICY ADVOCATES
• PART III: EXONEREE AND VICTIM ADVOCATES
• PART IV: GETTING THE WORD OUT
• REFERENCES