Brandon L. Garrett

About the Book

We all feel unfairness deeply when treated in rash ways. We expect and the law requires that government officials take fairness seriously, giving notice and an opportunity to be heard before taking our rights away. That is why the U.S. Constitution commands, twice, that no one shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Yet in overheated debates, people argue that others do not deserve any presumption of innocence. In courtrooms and colleges, police stations and jails, restaurants and libraries, print and online, the democratic value of due process is up for grabs.

Why is process under so much pressure? Brandon Garrett exposes widening fault lines. One division lies within our own attitudes, and he explores why we are tempted to put desired outcomes before fair process. Another lies in government, as judges adopt toothless due process rules. People are trapped in debt for unpaid traffic fines; sheriffs seize and forfeit belongings; algorithms suspend teachers’ employment; officials use flawed data to cancel healthcare; and magistrates order arrestees jailed because they cannot pay cash bail. Meanwhile, the rise of AI threatens what remains of due process with black box technology.

To fight against such unfairness, lawyers try to challenge unjust systems, researchers demonstrate why such processes are so counterproductive, and lawmakers try to enact new protections. Common ground matters now more than ever to mend political polarization, cool simmering distrust of government, prevent counterproductive errors, and safeguard constitutional rights. A revival of due process is long overdue.

Buy the Book

You can pre-order Defendant Due Process now from your favorite book seller; learn more at Polity Books.

About the Book

On January 20, 1984, Earl Washington—defended for all of forty minutes by a lawyer who had never tried a death penalty case—was found guilty of rape and murder in the state of Virginia and sentenced to death. After nine years on death row, DNA testing cast doubt on his conviction and saved his life. However, he spent another eight years in prison before more sophisticated DNA technology proved his innocence and convicted the guilty man.

DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free. In this unsettling in-depth analysis, Brandon Garrett examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 wrongfully convicted people to be exonerated by DNA testing.  [Read More about the book, or view the table of contents.]

Buy the Book

Buy Convicting the Innocent from: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Harvard University Press, IndieBound, and Powell's, or find it at a library. Translations of the book are now available in China, Japan, and Taiwan.

An Interactive Guide

A multimedia resource titled Getting it Right on the causes of wrongful convictions, was co-produced with the Innocence Project.

Data

Go to convictingtheinnocent.com to learn more about each of these DNA exonerations.  You can search through the cases, by looking for cases in your state, or by looking at particular causes of wrongful convictions like false confessions.

An earlier set of resource webpages include data from the 250 wrongful convictions studied in the book, examples of false confessions, and excerpts from their criminal trials.

Updates

You can follow the book here on Facebook.  I recently gave an interview with Esquire discussing false confessions.  Here is a draft of a new book chapter presenting updated data from the first 330 DNA exonerations.  This article updates data on false confessions and revisits the problem of confession contamination.

Reviews

Here are quotes from reviews of the book.  Jeffrey Rosen wrote a wonderful review in the New York Times.  

Awards

An Atlantic Best Book about Justice, 2012

Honorable Mention, 2012 Silver Gavel Awards, American Bar Association

Co-Winner, 2011 Constitutional Commentary Award, Constitution Project

This casebook is the first to cover federal habeas corpus comprehensively, presenting postconviction review and executive detention litigation in an accessible way. It is designed both for standalone courses on habeas corpus and for courses focusing on postconviction litigation, wrongful convictions, and national security detention. The first two chapters introduce students to the habeas privilege and the Suspension Clause. A four-chapter unit on postconviction litigation carefully explores cognizability, procedural doctrines, and merits adjudication. Two chapters develop the role habeas plays in review of immigration and other types of civil detention. A substantial two-chapter unit examines habeas review of military custody.

Here is a story describing the authors' goals in writing the book.  You can contact Garrett or Kovarsky with questions if you are interested in teaching from the book.  A teacher's manual accompanies the book and the book is also available as an online ebook.  The authors have also written concise analyses of recent habeas decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.