A new book writ­ten by Jim and Nancy Petro offers a com­pre­hen­sive analy­sis of how mis­car­riages of jus­tice result in wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Jim Petro, a for­mer Republican Attorney General of Ohio, has observed the jus­tice sys­tem from all sides and was appalled by the fre­quent mis­takes in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. As attor­ney gen­er­al, he advo­cat­ed along with the Innocence Project to help free a man wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed of mur­der and rape. In ​“False Justice,” the Petros expose a series of myths and mis­con­cep­tions about the American jus­tice sys­tem, such as, Only the guilty con­fess; and Wrongful con­vic­tion is the result of inno­cent human error. These mis­con­cep­tions, they argued, not only pre­vent juries from care­ful­ly weigh­ing evi­dence but also pre­vent local judges and pros­e­cu­tion teams from exam­in­ing cas­es in an unbi­ased fash­ion. ​“False Justice” will be released in October.

With respect to the death penal­ty, Mr. Petro con­sid­ers him­self a cau­tious sup­port­er, but writes: ​“When you are tak­ing a life on behalf of the state, there is no room for error, and we can nev­er become cal­lous to the enor­mi­ty of this responsibility.”

(Jim and Nancy Petro, ​“False Justice: Eight Myths that Convict the Innocent,” Kaplan Publishing, forth­com­ing October 2010). See more Books on the death penal­ty and New Voices.

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