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Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System
- Narrated by: Chris Henry Coffey
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
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Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System
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Publisher's Summary
From CSI to Forensic Files to the celebrated reputation of the FBI crime lab, forensic scientists have long been mythologized in American popular culture as infallible crime solvers. Juries put their faith in "expert witnesses", and innocent people have been executed as a result. Innocent people are still on death row today, condemned by junk science.
In 2012, the Innocence Project began searching for prisoners convicted by junk science, and three men, each convicted of capital murder, became M. Chris Fabricant's clients. Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System chronicles the fights to overturn their wrongful convictions and to end the use of the "science" that destroyed their lives. Weaving together courtroom battles from Mississippi to Texas to New York City and beyond, Fabricant takes the listener on a journey into the heart of a broken, racist system of justice and the role forensic science plays in maintaining the status quo.
At turns gripping, enraging, illuminating, and moving, Junk Science is a meticulously researched insider's perspective of the American criminal justice system. Previously untold stories of wrongful executions, corrupt prosecutors, and quackery masquerading as science animate Fabricant's true crime narrative.
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What listeners say about Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- vanessa
- 06-09-2022
Interesting Topic, Poor execution
I really wanted to like this. I heard the author on a podcast (Citations Needed episode 161) where the topic was discussed and would highly recommend that to anyone interested in the topic because this book is a disappointment.
The case against unscientific forensic sciences such as bite mark analysis quite rightly highlights the importance of scientific merhods and the danger of relying on case studies and personal experience alone. Ironically this is presented to us almost entirely through case studies and the author's personal experiences working for the Innocence Project. The book jumps around between cases in what is surely an editorial choice, not trusting our ability to focus for more than a few minutes at a time (or utilize the pause button) and trying to keep readers interested. It might work in traditional book form, but as an audiobook its incredibley difficult to keep track of who is involved in which case. The publishers seem to be trying to target true crime readers rather than those interested in questionable forensic science and its impact on the legal system. I suspect my distaste for the narration was based on this stylistic choice rather than any fault of the reader himself. Its hard to begrudge an endeavor like the Innocence Project a little self promotion, but there sure is a lot of it. There was also a lot more God talk than you might expect in a book about science.
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