Blind Injustice

“Mark Godsey, a former federal prosecutor who now heads the Ohio Innocence Project, examines the causes of wrongful convictions, from faulty eyewitness identifications to investigator tunnel vision, while drawing on a depressingly vast array of shocking examples. He graciously allows that the police, prosecutors, and judges whose ‘unreasonable and intellectually dishonest positions’ have led to unjust convictions and avoidable suffering acted not out of malice but out of the abundant capacity for human error.” - OUR FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2017

— The Progressive

"Blind Injustice is worth the read.  Give a copy to your favorite prosecutor.  And maybe to your neighbor."

— GAMSO - for the Defense

“Passionate and readable, this book provides meaningful support for the Innocence movement and startling insights into the justice system while admitting the reality of systemic racism but omitting its direct discussion.”

— Library Journal

"An excellent resource for psychology and law courses. . . . Highly recommended"

— CHOICE

"Blind Injustice, instructive and passionate, is an excellent introduction to major wrongful conviction themes. It is an accessible book for laypersons and criminologists who are new to the subject. It would make a lively text in a wrongful conviction course. One wishes that it would be read by prosecutors across America. If they did, perhaps like the author, they would say, as the hymn Amazing Grace has it— 'was blind but now I see.' . . . An attention-grabbing book that powerfully instructs."

 

— Social Science Research Network

"Godsey’s book is splendid. Everyone who cares the least bit about justice must read it. Parts will make you shake your head in amazement, parts will give you a sense of elation, and parts will make you cry. . . . There have been, over the past dozen or so years, several excellent books examining the failings of the American criminal justice system. A skeptic might wonder what there is new to say about the problems that infect the system.  But that skepticism melts almost instantly when one opens Godsey’s book. Mark Godsey brings a unique perspective to bear on the problem of convicting the innocent."

— Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law

“If, like me, you enjoyed the Netflix ‘docudrama’ Making A Murderer, you will be right at home with this excellent exposé of certain problematic features of the American criminal justice system. Former prosecutor, now professor, Mark Godsey takes his readers through a multitude of cases in which he acted as legal counsel, and where wrongful convictions emerged at the end of the day. The fact that this leading light in the Ohio Innocence Project was on the ‘other side’ of the justice ‘coin’ for many years, employing the same tactics that are likely to give rise to mistakes, gives his writing the credibility that other ‘justice system in crisis’ or ‘criminal injustice system’ books simply do not have.”

— Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books

"It is a powerful book - and scary as well."

— Davis Vanguard

"Blind Injustice provides great insight into how wrongful convictions happen in a system designed to avoid them. The insight is deceptively simple, but compelling: human beings are possessed of psychic weaknesses that all but guarantee the imprisonment of innocent men and women. With this knowledge in hand, what will we do to address the problem?""

— The Charles Smith Blog

“An excellent resource for psychology and law courses. . . . Highly recommended.”

— CHOICE

"Mark Godsey offers a fresh viewpoint"

— National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

"An easy and interesting read. . . . It is Godsey’s experience as a former prosecutor that gives this book its power. His story of transformation is one that every lawyer could learn from. I will certainly be buying copies for my students who begin their careers in prosecution."

— National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers