Contaminated Evidence

About this Episode

Brandon Garrett is one of the leading scholars on the problem of getting it wrong in criminal cases. Eyewitnesses who believe they know what they do not know, suspects who confess to crimes they did not commit, and the actually guilty parties who go free when convict the innocent: why and how does this happen?

This show’s links:

• Brandon Garrett’s faculty profile, author page, and writing
• Hold Up!, the (probably) one-off movie podcast we recorded
• Oral Argument 44: Serial
• Brandon Garrett, The Banality of Wrongful Executions
• Brandon Garrett, Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong
• Brandon Garrett, Contaminated Confessions Revisited
• About Elizabeth Loftus
• Oral Argument 48: Legal Truth (guest Lisa Kern Griffin), discussing Lisa Kern Griffin, Narrative, Truth, and Trial; see also links and discussion from Oral Argument 45: Sacrifice
• James Liebman et al., The Wrong Carlos, a fascinating website collecting photos, interviews, and other evidence concerning the conviction and execution of Carlos DeLuna, who was likely innocent
• This American Life, Confessions, Act One, an interview with Jim Trainum about botched confessions
• Benjamin Weiser, Settlement Is Approved in Central Park Jogger Case, but New York Deflects Blame
• National Research Council, Identifying the Culprit
• Alex Kozinski, Criminal Law 2.0
• About the Criminal Cases Review Commission
• Innocence Project at the UVA School of Law