American prosecutors are asked to play two roles within the criminal justice system: they are supposed to be ministers of justice whose only goals are to ensure fair trials—and they are also advocates of the government whose success rates are measured by how many convictions they get. Because of this second role, sometimes prosecutors suppress evidence in order to establish a defendant’s guilt and safeguard that conviction over time. 
In Prosecution Complex, Daniel S. Medwed shows how prosecutors are told to lock up criminals and protect the rights of defendants. This double role creates an institutional “prosecution complex” that animates how district attorneys’ offices treat potentially innocent defendants at all stages of the process—and that can cause prosecutors to aid in the conviction of the innocent. Ultimately, Prosecution Complex shows how, while most prosecutors aim to do justice, only some hit that target consistently.

Prosecution Complex: America's Race to Convict and Its Impact on the Innocent

Politics & Social Sciences

Medwed, Daniel S.

Social Sciences

NYU Press

A groundbreaking exposé of how our legal system makes it nearly impossible to overturn wrongful convictions\nThousands of innocent people are behind bars in the United States. But proving their innocence and winning their release is nearly impossible.\nIn Barred, legal scholar Daniel S. Medwed argues that our justice system’s stringent procedural rules are largely to blame for the ongoing punishment of the innocent. Those rules guarantee criminal defendants just one opportunity to appeal their convictions directly to a higher court. Afterward, the wrongfully convicted can pursue only a few narrow remedies. Even when there is strong evidence of a miscarriage of justice, rigid guidelines, bias, and deference toward lower courts all too often prevent exoneration.\nOffering clear explanations of legal procedures alongside heart-wrenching stories of their devastating impact, Barred exposes how the system is stacked against the innocent and makes a powerful call for change.

Barred: Why the Innocent Can't Get Out of Prison

Basic Books

This 2012 supplement accompanies the main text for Weinstein, Mansfield, Abrams, and Berger's Evidence, 9th Edition, and contains recent changes to the Federal Rules of Evidence and discussion of important new cases.

Evidence, 2012 Rules and Statute Supplement

Abrams, Norman

Brewer, Scott

Weinstein, Jack B.

Tillers, Peter

Criminal Law

Foundation Press

This 2018 Supplement may be used with any materials used in an Evidence course. It was prepared to accompany Weinstein, Abrams, Brewer, and Medwed's Evidence, 10th Edition, and contains up-to-date versions of the Federal Rules of Evidence and the California Evidence Code.

Evidence, 2018 Rules and Statute Supplement (University Casebook Series)

This supplement brings the principal text current with recent developments in the law.

Criminal Procedure: Principles, Policies and Perspectives, 2018 Supplement (American Casebook Series)

Dressler, Joshua

Thomas, George C.

West Academic Publishing

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