Ivan Goldman - Sick Justice - Inside the American Gulag

1. Jack Leonard, “L.A. Judge Begins Reducing Sentences of Three-Strikes Inmates,” Los Angeles Times , February 11, 2013.

2. Ibid.

3. Many articles on Gregory Taylor can be found in the Los Angeles Times , and his case is thoroughly explored in Joe Domanick, Cruel Justice: Three Strikes and the Politics of Crime in America’s Golden State (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).

4. Victoria Kim, “Three-Ttrikes Inmate Welcomes His Freedom,” Los Angeles Times , August 20, 2010.

5. Ibid.

6. Bruce Golding, “NY 3-Time Loser Law Upheld by Fed Court,” New York Post , October 19, 2010.

7. “Editorial: Time to Reform State’s ‘Three Strikes’ Law,” Seattle Times , January 23, 2013. An excellent history of the origins and development of three-strikes legislation can be found in Domanick, Cruel Justice .

8. Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Profile of Nonviolent Offenders Exiting State Prisons,” fact sheet, October 2004.

9. Interviews with experienced criminal court attorney Kevin Donahue of Torrance, California, were vitally important to my understanding of the twists and turns of the state’s three-strikes law.

10. Chris Martinez’s story is based on multiple conversations and letter exchanges between him and the author over fifteen years, beginning in 1998.

11. Greg Krikorian, “Three-Strikes Law Has Little Effect, Study Says,” Los Angeles Times , March 5, 2004.

12. Domanick, Cruel Justice .

13. Michael Greenbergerg, “Introduction: Our Collective Responsibility for ‘Unjust’ Laws,” Human Rights Magazine , American Bar Association 31, No. 1 (Winter 2004).

14. Domanick, Cruel Justice .

15. Ibid.

16. FAMM, “James Belt,” Faces of FAMM: State Profiles , accessed March 18, 2013, http://www.famm.org/profilesofinjustice/StateProfiles/JamesBelt.aspx.

1. The information was on the official website, http://www.da-tulareco.org/, prior to Philip Cline’s resignation.

2. Mark Curriden, “Harmless Error? New Study Claims Prosecutorial Misconduct Is Rampant in California,” ABA Journal , December 1, 2010; and “Study: Prosecutorial Misconduct Ignored,” North County Gazette , October 5, 2010.

3. Innocence Project, “Report: Prosecutorial Misconduct Often Unpunished in California,” Innocence Blog , October 5, 2010, http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Report_Prosecutorial_Misconduct_Often_Unpunished_in_California.php.

4. Innocence Project, “Government Misconduct,” Understand the Causes , accessed March 18, 2013, http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/Government-Misconduct.php.

5. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), U.S. Supreme Court Center, Justia.com , http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/373/83/case.html.

6. Ibid.

7. See Ronald F. Wright, “How Prosecutor Elections Fail Us,” Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 6 (2009): 581–610.

8. All quotations from Kevin Donahue are from the author’s interviews with him. This particular conversation was in April 2011.

9. This phone interview with the author took place in March 2011.

10. August 3, 2011, letter from Ayala to author. Public defenders and private court-appointed attorneys do tend to be overwhelmed, but I’ve personally seen instances of their doing fine work anyway.

11. Miller interviews and e-mail correspondence.

12. Rosalind Alexis Sargent, “The Federal Sentencing Guidelines: An Infectious Antidote,” Court Review , Winter 2003, 24–34.

13. Ibid.

14. Jed Stone and Nina Morrison were quoted in Andrew Martin, “The Prosecution’s Case against DNA,” New York Times , November 25, 2011.

1. Unless otherwise cited, the details of Tim Cole’s story and related quotations are from Schwartzapfel, “No Country for Innocent Men.” See also Innocence Project, “Timothy Cole,” Know the Cases , http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Timothy_Cole.php; and Wade Goodwyn, “Judge Posthumously Clears Man Convicted of Rape,” NPR, February 7, 2009, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100383293.

2. Jonah Goldberg, “The Tyranny of Clichés,” National Review , July 10, 2002.

3. Alexander Volokh, “Guilty Men,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review , 1997.

4. Goldberg, “Tyranny of Clichés.”

5. Adam Liptak, “Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions,” New York Times , April 19, 2004.

6. Ibid.

7. “N.Y.C. DA Vance Announces Conviction Integrity Program,” Bloomberg News , March 4, 2010.

8. Liptak, “Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions.”

9. Ibid.

10. Brandon Garrett, quoted in Beth Schwartzapfel and Hannah Levintova, “How Many Innocent People Are in Prison?” Mother Jones , December 12, 2011.

11. Ibid.

12. Nicholas Confessore, “After 21 Years, DNA Testing Sets Man Free in Rape Case,” New York Times , November 7, 2006; and Innocence Project, “Scott Fappiano,” Know the Cases , http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Scott_Fappiano.php.

13. Jack Leonard, “Murder Conviction Voided after 20 Years,” Los Angeles Times , March 16, 2011.

14. Liptak, “Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions.”

15. Arlette Saenz, “Death Penalty: Applause for Rick Perry’s ‘Ultimate Justice’ at Republican Debate,” ABC News, September 8, 2011.

16. John Rudolf, “Humberto Leal Garcia Executed in Texas after Obama Administration Argued for Stay,” Huffington Post , December 1, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/07/humberto-leal-garcia-executed_n_892762.html.

17. David Grann, “Trial by Fire: Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?” New Yorker , September 7, 2009.

18. Ibid.

19. Ed Lavandera, “DNA Cleared Them, but They’ll Never Feel Free,” CNN, May 19, 2008, http://articles.cnn.com/2008-05-19/justice/dna.cleared_1_dna-evidence-innocence-project-jeff-blackburn; and Innocence Project, “Wiley Fountain,” Know the Cases , http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Wiley_Fountain.php.

20. Innocence Project, “Wiley Fountain.”

21. Lavandera, “DNA Cleared Them.”

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. “Georgia Executes Troy Davis after His Last Pleas Fail,” NBC News, September 22, 2011, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44592285/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/.

25. “Troy Davis Executed; Supporters Cry Injustice,” USA Today , September 22, 2011.

26. Unless otherwise cited, details of the Bozella case are from Peter Applebome, “Exonerated of Murder, a Boxer Makes a Debut at 52,” New York Times , October 10, 2011.

27. “Dewey Bozella,” BoxRec, http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=583595&cat=boxer.

28. Kevin Drum, “The Right Not to Be Framed,” Mother Jones , November 4, 2009.

29. Ibid.

30. David G. Savage, “Supreme Court Shields Prosecutors in Wrongful Convictions,” Los Angeles Times , April 3, 2011.

31. Claire Suddath, “When Is It Legal to Frame a Man for Murder?” Time , November 5, 2009.

32. David G. Savage, “Supreme Court Rejects Damages for Innocent Man Who Spent 14 Years on Death Row,” Los Angeles Times , March 30, 2011.

33. John Thompson, “The Prosecution Rests, but I Can’t,” New York Times , April 9, 2011.

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid.

36. Ibid.

37. Savage, “Supreme Court Rejects Damages for Innocent Man.”