The Wrong Carlos: Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution
James S. Liebman - 2012
His execution passed unnoticed for years until a team of Columbia Law School faculty and students almost accidentally chose to investigate his case and found that DeLuna almost certainly was innocent. They discovered that no one had cared enough about either the defendant or the victim to make sure the real perpetrator was found. Everything that could go wrong in a criminal case did. This book documents DeLuna's conviction, which was based on a single, nighttime, cross-ethnic eyewitness identification with no corroborating forensic evidence. At his trial, DeLuna's defense, that another man named Carlos had committed the crime, was not taken seriously. The lead prosecutor told the jury that the other Carlos, Carlos Hernandez, was a "phantom" of DeLuna's imagination. In upholding the death penalty on appeal, both the state and federal courts concluded the same thing: Carlos Hernandez did not exist.The evidence the Columbia team uncovered reveals that Hernandez not only existed but was well known to the police and prosecutors. He had a long history of violent crimes similar to the one for which DeLuna was executed. Families of both Carloses mistook photos of each for the other, and Hernandez's violence continued after DeLuna was put to death. This book and its website (thewrongcarlos.net) reproduce law-enforcement, crime lab, lawyer, court, social service, media, and witness records, as well as court transcripts, photographs, radio traffic, and audio and videotaped interviews, documenting one of the most comprehensive investigations into a criminal case in U.S. history.The result is eye-opening yet may not be unusual. Faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation, and prosecutorial misfeasance continue to put innocent people at risk of execution. The principal investigators conclude with novel suggestions for improving accuracy among the police, prosecutors, forensic scientists, and judges.
Witch World Saga 1-3: The Original Three Books
Andre Norton - 2017
Witch World The first book in the classic Witch World saga by beloved fantasy and science fiction author Andre Norton. Simon Tregarth, a man on the run, escapes from our world into another, where magic still has power. He finds new purpose in the service of Estcarp, whose witches use their ancient knowledge of magic to protect their home. But a new threat is rising: the mysterious Kolder, who possess powers and technology unlike anything known in the Witch World. It will take Simon and the forces of Estcarp all their might, their courage, and their magic to drive back the insurmountable enemy. Web of the Witch World Fantasy and science fiction Grand Master Andre Norton’s Witch World saga continues in Web of the Witch World. After repulsing the Kolder, the land of Estcarp is safe, until a sudden disappearance sends Simon Tregarth and his allies on a quest to stop an enigmatic new danger. Though the Kolder were defeated before, they rise again with a vengeance, and their plot is even more sinister than before. From Karsten in the south to the swamps of Tor to the Kolder’s impenetrable stronghold and beyond, Simon must fight to stop the invaders of his adopted home once and for all. Year of the Unicorn Year Of the Unicorn returns to Andre Norton’s Witch World with a tale of adventure and magic. The orphan Gillan grew up in an abbey in High Hallack, always knowing she was different and never feeling at home. When the lords of High Hallack pledge twelve brides to the Were Riders in exchange for their protection, Gillan is faced with an opportunity few would consider: to take the place of one of the twelve chosen women and go off to parts unknown to marry one of these strange wild men. But Gillan leaps at the chance to leave the only home she has ever known in the hopes of finding something she was meant to do. And her rare gift to see through illusions that fool others will prove vital in a journey where nothing is as it seems.
Lawyer X
Patrick Carlyon - 2020
It took the police a decade to curtail the violence and bring down criminal kingpins Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel and their accomplices. When the police finally closed the case file, just how they really won the war, with the help of an unlikely police informer, would become a closely guarded secret and its exposure, the biggest legal scandal of our time.Lawyer X is the scandalous, true story of how a promising defence barrister from a privileged background broke all the rules - becoming both police informer and her client's lover - sharing their secrets and shaping the gangland war that led to sensational arrests and convictions. The story of how Nicola Gobbo became Lawyer X, and why, is a compelling study in desperation and determination.Lawyer X is the definitive story of Melbourne's gangland wars and its most glamorous and compelling central character, based on the ground-breaking work of investigative journalists Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, who broke the story for the Herald Sun in 2014, and their five-year struggle to reveal the truth about the identity of Lawyer X.
The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist: A True Story of Injustice in the American South
Radley Balko - 2018
Together they spent a combined thirty years in prison before finally being exonerated in 2008. Meanwhile, the real killer remained free.The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist chronicles how the courts and Mississippi's death investigation system--a relic of the Jim Crow era--failed to deliver justice for its citizens and recounts the horrifying story of the two men who built successful careers on the back of this system. For nearly two decades, medical examiner Dr. Steven Hayne performed the vast majority of Mississippi's autopsies, while his friend Dr. Michael West, a local dentist, pitched himself as a forensic jack-of-all-trades. Together they became the go-to experts for prosecutors and helped put countless Mississippians in prison. But then some of those convictions began to fall apart. Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington argue that bad forensics, structural racism, and institutional failures are at fault, and raise sobering questions about our criminal justice system's ability to address them.
Inside: Life Behind Bars in America
Michael G. Santos - 2006
population will be confined in their lifetimes. Despite these disturbing numbers, little is known about life inside beyond the mythology of popular culture.Michael G. Santos, a federal prisoner nearing the end of his second decade of continuous confinement, has dedicated the last eighteen years to shedding light on the lives of the men warehoused in the American prison system. Inside: Life Behind Bars in America, his first book for the general public, takes us behind those bars and into the chaos of the cellblock. Capturing the voices of his fellow prisoners with perfect pitch, Santos makes the tragic--- and at times inspiring---stories of men from the toughest gang leaders to the richest Wall Street criminals come alive. From drug schemes, murders for hire, and even a prostitution ring that trades on the flesh of female prison guards, this book contains the never-before-seen details of prison life that at last illuminate the varied ways in which men experience life behind bars in America.
Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison
Gresham M. Sykes - 1958
The book is remarkably short--just 150 pages--but bristles with ideas. Sykes argued that many of the psychological effects of modern prison are even more brutal than the physical cruelties of the past. The trauma of being designated one of the very worst human beings in the world left prisoners with lifelong scars. It also inspired solidarity among prisoners and fierce resistance to authorities as strategies for rejecting those who rejected them. His analysis called into question whether prisons genuinely were, as many believed, total institutions, where every facet of life was rigidly controlled. Sykes showed that the stronger the bonds among prisoners, the more difficult it was for prison guards to run the prisons without finding ways of accommodating the prisoners.The book set the stage for Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish, among other works. Since it appeared in 1958, it has served society as an indispensable text in coming to terms with the nature of modern power.
SecureGen: The Complete 5-Books Private Security Series
Clara Kendrick - 2017
Lots of suspense, mystery, and romance. No cliffhangers! THE STALKER Jane is a weather girl with big ambitions. With each appearance on television, she hopes to catch the attention of a national news channel. Instead, she attracts a different kind of attention. An obsessed fan is hellbent on invading her world as a faceless stalker. Worried that her life is in danger, she turns to an old friend who assigns her a bodyguard. A man filled with strength, humor and bravery. As her stalker slowly infests every aspect of her life, Jane’s attention is captured by her bodyguard as romance blossoms between them. But will this distraction prove deadly? THE ROOKIE Things are looking up as Lara passes trial after trial while trying to win a job with a company called SecureGen. Everything looks promising until she starts to fall for Jackson, the ruggedly handsome expert testing her. As they grow close, Lara discovers that something is very wrong at SecureGen, a conspiracy is growing within its ranks which could endanger her and everyone she cares about. Convinced that she can help, Lara soon involves herself in a series of dangerous situations, but has her training prepared her to fight such a conspiracy? And is the man she cares about involved? THE MANSION It should have been like any other assignment. Ensuring that a young boy called Max wasn’t overwhelmed by being assigned a bodyguard. But when Hazel first laid eyes on Bracewell House, a mansion in the middle of a large estate, she realized the assignment was anything but usual. After growing close to the young boy who lives there, Hazel comes into conflict with his father, a billionaire with a domineering personality. Hazel feels strangely drawn to him as they disagree about what’s best for Max. All the while, dangerous forces close in on Bracewell House, an isolated place under siege. THE HACKER Molly hates her job. All she wants to do is paint, but she promised her father that she’d give the 9 to 5 life one more go. Just as the boredom sets in, she meets Andrew. An IT expert hired to look into a security breach at the company she works for. As they fall for each other, Molly uncovers a devastating secret about Andrew – he’s spying on his friends. Suddenly caught up in a world of spies, hackers, and betrayal, Molly has to decide whether she truly can trust the man she loves. THE MISSING GIRL Rose lived a quiet life. She liked to read. She spent most of her time in her tiny apartment. That was until the gunmen turned up at her door trying to kill her. In the midst of the attack, she is saved by her ex-husband, Nathan McKenzie, a man she hasn’t seen in nearly ten years. Now on the run, Rose slowly unravels why her life is in danger, and whether she can ever grow to love and trust Nathan McKenzie ever again. The epic final chapter in the SecureGen romance series.
Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty
Maurice Chammah - 2021
ANTHONY LUKAS AWARD In 1972, the United States Supreme Court made a surprising ruling: the country's death penalty system violated the Constitution. The backlash was swift, especially in Texas, where executions were considered part of the cultural fabric, and a dark history of lynching was masked by gauzy visions of a tough-on-crime frontier.When executions resumed, Texas quickly became the nationwide leader in carrying out the punishment. Then, amid a larger wave of criminal justice reform, came the death penalty's decline, a trend so durable that even in Texas the punishment appears again close to extinction.In Let the Lord Sort Them, Maurice Chammah charts the rise and fall of capital punishment through the eyes of those it touched. We meet Elsa Alcala, the orphaned daughter of a Mexican American family who found her calling as a prosecutor in the nation's death penalty capital, before becoming a judge on the state's highest court. We meet Danalynn Recer, a lawyer who became obsessively devoted to unearthing the life stories of men who committed terrible crimes, and fought for mercy in courtrooms across the state. We meet death row prisoners--many of them once-famous figures like Henry Lee Lucas, Gary Graham, and Karla Faye Tucker--along with their families and the families of their victims. And we meet the executioners, who struggle openly with what society has asked them to do.In tracing these interconnected lives against the rise of mass incarceration in Texas and the country as a whole, Chammah explores what the persistence of the death penalty tells us about forgiveness and retribution, fairness and justice, history and myth. Written with intimacy and grace, Let the Lord Sort Them is the definitive portrait of a particularly American institution.
Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing
Ted Conover - 1999
When Conover’s request to shadow a recruit at the New York State Corrections Officer Academy was denied, he decided to apply for a job as a prison officer. So begins his odyssey at Sing Sing, once a model prison but now the state’s most troubled maximum-security facility. The result of his year there is this remarkable look at one of America’s most dangerous prisons, where drugs, gang wars, and sex are rampant, and where the line between violator and violated is often unclear.
The Best Short Stories of All Time - Volume 1
Jack LondonEdgar Allan Poe - 2011
Ranging from the 19th to the 20th centuries, writers include James Augustine Aloysius Joyce, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, Richard Edward Connell, Henri Nathaniel Hawthorne, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Jack London, Henri Ringgold Wilmer Lardner, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant and Edgar Allan Poe.
The Best American Sports Writing 2019 (The Best American Series ®)
Charles P. Pierce - 2019
Each year, the series editor and guest editor curates a truly exceptional collection. The only shared traits among all these diverse styles, voices, and stories are the extraordinarily high caliber of writing, and the pure passion they tap into that can only come from sports.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, Good Girl Bad Blood, The Sun is also a Star, Everything, Everything 4 Books Collection Set By Holly Jackson & Nicola Yoon
Nicola Yoon - 2020
The Captivating Debutantes Boxed Set, #1-3
Emily Windsor - 2018
Three Irresistible Gentleman.
A vengeful viscount, an arrogant earl and a damaged soldier all find love with ladies that defy their plans and disrupt their lives. A sensual Regency Romance Box Set with warmth and wit. This volume collect books 1-3 including; Captivated by the Viscount, My Captive Earl and Her Noble Captive.Captivated by the ViscountA lot can change in four nights.... Ruination and kidnap were not on Miss Lucy Lazenby´s list of planned events for that week...even if it seems to be for her own good. Caught up in the lies and passion of Lord Danbury, Lucy finds the truth can never be hidden for long. Jasper Carnforth, Viscount Danbury is really doing the girl a favour by ruining her...if it just so happens to coincide with his own need for vengeance - all the better. However keeping the delectable Lucy in his home is more of a challenge than he´d imagined. Retribution may have brought them together, but desire has its own agenda. This fast paced Regency novella (34,000 words) is the first standalone story in The Captivating Debutantes Series.My Captive EarlThe Earl of Rookdean did not want to host a house party.Miss Clara Lockwood did not want to attend the Earl of Rookdean’s house party.You don’t always get what you want…At a masquerade ball on the opening night, Rookdean encounters a captivating Grecian-dressed goddess. With identities hidden, will his heart be able to find what his eyes cannot see?It started by chance, in a moonlit sunken garden. It leads to a week of concealed passion, deception and misunderstanding. With a house full of hidden desires, demanding men, song, charades, debutantes and…Lady Minkworth – who wouldn’t want a house party?This regency novella (49,000 words) is the second standalone story in The Captivating Debutantes Series. Heat level: Sensual. 3 out of 5.Her Noble CaptiveThat bitter winter of 1813…Her… Miss Rosalind Trewent. Irrepressibly vivid. Improperly spoken. Burdened by secrets. Refuses to marry.Noble… Major Lucas Mainwaring. Excessively grouchy. Reluctant earl. Self-admitted wreck. Can never marry.Captive… Winter and the cold hand of a murderer stalk the land, but the arrival of the Major as a houseguest warms Rosalind to her very toes.But the past can never be hidden for long…An idyllic country village is not always as it appears and when Lucas delves deeper, he discovers murky secrets, veiled passions, lust he thought he could never feel...and a love that began many years before.The Captivating Debutantes series can be read in any order.
The Fourth Golden Age of Science Fiction Megapack: Clifford D. Simak
Clifford D. Simak - 1985
This volume assembles 2 novels and 4 shorter works -- almost 500 pages of classic fiction -- by 3-time Hugo Award-winner Clifford D. Simak. Included are:TIME QUARRY [novel]EMPIRE [novel]THE STREET THAT WASN'T THERE [short story]THE WORLD THAT COULDN'T BE [novelet]HELLHOUNDS OF THE COSMOS [short story]PROJECT MASTODON [short story]If you enjoy this book, search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see the more than 100 other entries in the series, covering science fiction, modern authors, mysteries, westerns, classics, adventure stories, and much, much more! (Sort by publication date to see the most recent entries.)