You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You're Innocent

by Justin Brooks, Barry Scheck (Foreword)

Surviving prison as an innocent person is a surreal nightmare no one wants to think about. But it can happen to you. 
 
Justin Brooks has spent his career freeing innocent people from prison. With You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You're Innocent , he offers up-close accounts of the cases he has fought, embedding them within a larger landscape of innocence claims and robust research on what we know about the causes of wrongful convictions.
 
Putting readers at the defense table, this book forces us to consider how any of us might be swept up in the system, whether we hired a bad lawyer, bear a slight resemblance to someone else in the world, or are not good with awkward silence. The stories of Brooks's cases and clients paint the picture of a broken justice system, one where innocence is no protection from incarceration or even the death penalty. Simultaneously relatable and disturbing, You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You're Innocent is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand how injustice is served by our system.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Law, Audiobook, History, Crime, Book Club

232 pages, Hardcover

Published April 4, 2023

Reviews

[Rhiannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might put together a reading list soon, but I strongly believe that everyone should read at least a few Innocence Project/Innocence Network authored books. So many people do not know how much they do not know about our legal system. This was a great, well rounded (if quick on some topics) exploration of many contributing factors to wrongful convictions (as well as disproportionate sentencing).

[Emily Serleth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to have Professor Brooks as a professor and listening to him talk about these stories is even more inspiring than reading them. This book is a must read, but be warned it will fuel your anger towards our criminal justice system

[Rick Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, there’s like some really gut wrenching stuff here. This is like Just Mercy if we take out some of the Hollywood.

We really need like a refresh on protections for people accused of a crime. I don’t know how it’s not standard to record and have available all police interrogations and interactions, from witnesses they speak with to every interaction with the accused.

[Emily Bergez · Rating 4 out of 5]

4🌟I sat in on a panel at the LA Times festival of books with Justin Brooks speaking. I was incredibly intrigued by his work at the Innocence Project. I gave this a solid 4 because I find all of the topics and stories of wrongly convicted cases truly captivating. I’m am constantly shocked by how our legal system fails the majority of people over and over and over again.

I would love to read/listen to more books like this.

Please note I wasn’t able to finish the audiobook within my loan so I had to wait over a month to get it again which is why it took me so long to finish lol

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by the California Innocence Project founder, headquartered here in San Diego, I can only hope to run into this author one day. This book is full of the rewarding work he and his colleagues do to try to free those truly innocent in our justice system.
It appears a lot of people (and people of color, at that) in this day and age ended up in prison post–War on Drugs declaration from Reagan in the 1980s. Especially those with priors. And before our DNA evidence was technologically advanced like it is today. Before that, people were convicted and sentenced based on ONE lineup identification by an eyewitness. Crazy. So there's how the "you might go to prison even though you're innocent" comes into play for this book (not that you'd just be plucked off the street and thrown into prison, which is perhaps how this title could be interpreted).
The author talks about stories of people he's freed and offers in the end possible reforms that could help keep innocent people out of prison. One of those is doing away with the jury trials altogether—something I never realized was unique to the United States/Western culture. (Also something I don't think will ever happen in our lifetime.) Reforms to lineups could also help—telling possible eyewitnesses the suspect may or MAY NOT be in this lineup, and showing them a second lineup saying the same thing.
On and on we could go, but it seems a lot of it starts with the police and how they handle investigations and eyewitnesses, leading to convictions of innocent people, as the jury will put all their weight into this one witness's identification.
Anyway, this was well done and kept my attention the entire time. And if the California Innocence Project ever needs an editor, I'm available. That, or maybe I should just go to law school already.

[Michelle Jiang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is extremely eye opening and exposes how easily mistakes in our criminal justice system are made as well as how corrupt it can be. It’s extremely engaging in how it intertwines Justin Brooks’s real life cases and possible reforms that could be made to better our system. Brooks’s writing clearly showcases his personality and opinions while proving he is a modern day hero.

[Elizabeth Garzon · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 stars rounded up baby!

Listen to me, look into my eyes, and read this book. I know I know not everyone likes nonfiction blah blah blah but this was SO well done and unlike anything I've read for a few years. The main topic of this novel is precisely what the title suggests: it is an exploration and explanation of the ways that innocent people can be sent to prison from being the person to find your partner after they were killed to caring for a child to simply "looking like" a criminal.

The writing is clear, concise, and the examples of peoples' stories who were sent to prison for a crime they did not commit were heartbreaking and striking. Such a good intro to the topic and to the nonfiction genre.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book lays bare a series of uncomfortable truths about the justice system and demonstrates just how easily really anyone can end up in prison, wrongfully convicted. The book is also deeply inspiring as it demonstrates how, by dedicating his career to exonerating the wrongfully convicted, Justin Brooks really has made a difference to so many lives and is improving the justice system one steady step at a time.

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be interesting and very easily digestible (well, in structure and pace — the content is enraging and disturbing and disheartening :/ ). the book highlights the stories of many California Innocence Project clients, organized by the myriad ways you can be fucked over by life circumstances (your have a sick child, you have a relationship and live with someone who gets murdered, someone lies) or by the system (your attorney is ineffective assistance, your jury is blinded by “science”). sharing some stories and snippets from the book facilitated a productive conversation w my parents about the shortcomings and failures of the criminal “justice” system, and the need for what I want to do, PD work. I think this book’s greatest strength is probably the low barrier to entry for folks who have never looked critically at the system — start w the most jaw dropping for the law person, I think, and maybe it gets through.

on that note … it is striking how different the innocence project folks and the PD perspective is. this book laid out all of these ways that the system is broken, is horrific, but we’re asked to care about only a small percentage of the folks who are caught up and ground down by the system. the same junk science “experts,” coercive interviewers, single minded prosecutors, and just straight up lying cops strip /everyone/ of their dignity and their rights, but we are asked to be enraged over just a bit of the harm, just a snippet of the corners that prosecutors cut. I understand that this man has dedicated his life to a very particular injustice, and hours on this earth and funding and political will are limited, and we all have to pick our battles, but the framing here leaves a lot out of the picture. I wish there was more of an acknowledgement that the same police state and systemic factors that are so repugnant here do in fact reach far beyond the exonerated (as heartbreaking as their stories are).

all that said, I do respect this work; it’s incredibly important and incredibly slow and difficult. i’m wishing those at the California Innocence Project well. I also want to flag, this book was recommended to me by Professor Moran, co-founder of the Michigan Innocence Clinic and my crim professor and mentor. it was nice to get to chat about it and his work with him.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent stories of the wrongfully convicted, interwoven with practical reforms that could be made to the Criminal Legal System to prevent this from happening, or at least minimize it.

Big wtf moment was Chicago cops referring to their own testimony as ‘testilying’.

My only complaint is that some of the stories of the victims of wrongful convictions could have been covered in greater detail. If you’re a listener of the Wrongful Conviction podcast, you’ll be familiar with about 70% of these stories. I appreciated the shout out to that podcast and the work of Jason Flom.

A must read for anyone interested in this field, or any lawyer or law student pursuing a career in criminal defense or Public Defense.

[Adam Ricks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fortunate enough to listen to Justin Brooks and Kim Long (Chapter 3) at a CLE event. That prompted me to pick up this book. Super interesting view into our justice system. There are so many things that need to be changed. These innocence projects fighting against wrongful convictions are amazing projects - and such hard work. The odds are always stacked against them. These stories of exonerations are incredible and heart breaking.
This book definitely isn't for everyone. And if you are going to read just one book about this topic - I would choose Just Mercy. However - if you are going to read two...this one is definitely worth picking up.

[H Cruise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible perspective from Brooks about the never ending struggles in the world of fighting wrongful convictions. Brooks sheds light on the issues in an eye opening way, with effective research and his own personal experiences. It’s faced paced and he manages to make a clear path from problems to possible solutions a really interesting way.
A must read for anyone interested in True Crime!

[Brian]

This book hurt my stomach. The author founded the California Innocence Project, so the book deftly uses harrowing stories of wrongful convictions to walk us through the myriad ways our criminal justice system destroys lives. I found the chapter on junk sciences illuminating and the final chapter on race and poverty so devastating. Basically, humans are flawed but our system doesn’t really account for that and the price is thousands of innocent people in prison. BURN IT ALL DOWN!!! Or at least donate to your local Innocence Project because they are saving lives and changing laws.

[Delaney Zubrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

i feel incredibly empowered, after reading this book, to join the cause. the writing is structured with incredible flow from start to finish jumping from cases to personal stories to historical data. heartbreaking yet it shows there is hope.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The [US legal] system is complex, biased, overloaded and geared towards pushing you into a plea bargain. Without a competent lawyer it will run over you without tapping the brakes."
A must-read for anyone in the US eligible for Jury duty. Warning: it will make your blood boil.

[Adria Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read, so interesting!

[Lawrence Lewis · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Audible). When I first hear about mock trial at Cornell Law School, I thought it would be cool. Halfway thru the preparation for the competition, I realized it was “mock appellate arguments,” not mock trial. Most of the books on the criminal justice system that are published are written by law professors and/or appellate attorneys that had no taste for the actual in the gutter, criminal jury trials. BUT have ALL the answers about what is wrong with the criminal justice system from the safety of the university or the appellate courtroom. For example,

(1) Just Mercy: Stevenson is an appellate attorney that handles exclusively appellate death penalty cases, because that is the focus of the Ivy League law schools. Criminal law at Cornell, Yale and Harvard is death penalty reversals.

(2) Chokehold: Paul Butler practiced for about 7-8 years, but I cannot figure out from the internet how many jury trials he defended in that time, before heading to academia. I doubt that he has more than 75 felony jury trials.

(3) Locking up our own: James Foreman, Jr. was a public defender for six years. If he tried 10 felonies a year, which is a crazy number of trials, he still would have less than 65 felony jury trials before heading to academia.

(4) Charged: Emily Bazelon is a journalist that was educated at Yale Law School. She has never tried a felony jury trial, but writes that the “prosecutor has all the power.” That is a true statement ONLY if you don’t know the power of statutory speedy trial demands. Because I file 60 statutory speedy trial demands every year, I hijacker the trial calendars and put the prosecutors on their heels. I doubt if any trial judge in Gwinnett County would state that the prosecutor have power over me, and I am just a solo practitioner.

(5) Rap on Trial: co-author Andrea Dennis worked for federal defender (public defender at federal level). Uncertain for how many years, but it seems like less than seven. Again, at 10 felony jury trials a year, she probably has less than 70 felony jury trials. She has been in academia for most of her career.

(6) The New Jim Crow: Michelle Alexander is a civil rights attorney and activist that has never defended someone in a felony jury trial, but writes “hardly anyone goes to jury trial. She cites numerous examples of miscarriages of justice in Georgia, but doesn’t ask while she is in Georgia, who tries to e most cases here. I suspect we would have met then, and for accuracy sake, she would have been forced to write “outside of Gwinnett County, Georgia, hardly anyone ever goes to trial.”

(7) Jonathan Rapping was a public defender for 9 years, but never reached 80 felony jury trials. He told a student in his class at John Marshall he tried about 65 jury trials.

(8) Justin Brooks the author of this book appears to have practiced law at the trial level from 1991 or 1992 until 1999, when he founded in the California Innocence Project. In those eight years, he might have tried 70 felony jury trials, but probably less than 100. That is important because it informs what he writes in THIS BOOK. In chapter two he writes it is “easy” to wrongly convicted in rural areas, but cites a case where the prosecution had to try the case 3-4 times to get a conviction. Of course, he fails to mention the trial attorneys name that went to war 3-4 times, because the final decision was a guilty verdict. No trial attorney would call that an “easy” conviction, but appellate attorneys and academics write stupid shit like that all the time.

ALL of the aforementioned folks are doing GREAT work in their respective fields, but they talk too much about a criminal justice system that only exists in their imaginations. First of all, none of the aforementioned stayed in the courtroom 10+ years. I contend that experience is everything. Second, when they write, they write about a system that existed 10 years ago, not now.

THIS BOOK was published in April of 2023. DNA hasn’t exonerated anyone that has been convicted in the last 20 years. DNA is exonerating folks from the 1970s and 1980s. Let’s talk about April 2023, when I had a jury deliberating on one double homicide before Judge Duncan, while I was selecting a jury in front of Judge Fluker (Austin Ford). There is a shit ton of technology that I must digest now in 2023-2024, which is why the title of this book should have been PRIOR TO COVID ANYONE COULD GO TO JAIL. Some of the digital evidence includes:

(1) body cam videos
(2) Flock camera photos and videos (traffic light video)
(3) cell phone triangulation (that gives accurate location on cell phones)
(4) private Ring surveillance
(5) surveillance videos from neighboring businesses
(6) cellbrite downloads of a suspects entire phone, including rap videos and dick pics
(7) social media pages, including YouTube where clients wear stolen jewelry around their neck, hours after armed robbery
(8) jail calls, because after clients exercise their Miranda rights, they get on the phone and tell friends where to find the gun and drugs
(9) crime scene photos and drone videos
(10) medical examiner photos
(11) text messages between client and others
(12) recorded interviews at the police station
(13) etc.

The average homicide trial takes 65-100 hours for a skilled trial attorney to prepare for jury trial. What we (I am a skilled trial attorney) don’t need anymore is mothers calling us quoting these books that encourage antiquated notions of 1960s police officers burning down blocks in Philly because they hate black people, when the defendant son has carjacked a woman and decided to rub the gun on her areola before they pulled off. It is time to get real.

In 2024, it is possible to recreate exactly where a person was at any given time using the cell phone data:

(1) cell phone triangulation
(2) Apple Pay
(3) store surveillance videos
(4) cellBrite downloads
(5) photos taken that lock is address where photo is taken

NONE of the aforementioned authors defended felony cases when ALL that technology was available for the prosecutor. So, the idea that ANYONE MIGHT GO TO PRISON in 2024 when they are innocent and players in the system are not lazy and corrupt is disingenuous. The fact that the author chose to go outside of the United States in a 232 page book to find examples of wrongful incarcerations when he ran an innocence project in California, and had access to info from many other innocence projects, should suggest that anyone walking down the street in the US cannot just find themselves in prison on a whim.

I TRY 18-20 major felonies (eg homicide, rape, home invasions, aggravated child molestation) a year, every year, except 2020, where COVID limited me to 2 and 2021, where COVID limited me to 9. 2022 was 18. 2023 was 18. ALL PUBLIC RECORD. So, it is offensive when I read defendants don’t go to jury trial, or all trial attorneys are incompetent, when I have 50+ more felony jury trials than all the authors combined. And I still have another 1-2 years of trials before leave the courtroom.

With an almost 30 year FELONY TRIAL career, I can confidently write that authors of these social justice books can retire the phrase “poor people and people of color” and instead substitute the phrase “the undereducated and frequent drug and alcohol abusers”. The Fromm meter (referred to in chapter 9) doesn’t work because people are poor or black, it works because people are weak-minded. Lack of formal education (i.e. completing high school) and/or chronic alcohol and drugs use are the foundation of a weak mind. And no, there is there is no way I would confess to a murder, rape or aggravated child molestation that I did not commit. Detectives don’t use interrogation techniques on shoplifting, entering autos, forgeries and possession of cocaine. So, we are only talking about capital felonies.

None of the aforementioned authors seems to have made the connection I made 10 years ago (2014):

70% of all criminal cases stem from drugs and alcohol use. 25% stem from men (93% of all criminal defendants) being with the wrong woman. The 5% that are mental health are distributed equally between chronic drug abusers (cocaine addicts that have made themselves schizophrenic), chronic toxic relationships (crazy woman can make you crazy) and organic mental health problems. My now 19 year old figured it out at age 11, when he said to me at a QT after baseball practice, “so all I have to do is not do drugs and alcohol and marry the right woman, and I will never go to jail.” THAT IS IT EXACTLY. Let me add now, even if you are a super aggressive black male that speeds around town because you are super busy, you will NOT find yourself in handcuffs, if you are respectful to authority and let officers speak first and just answer their questions

For those of you who have recently come across Roland Fryer’s study that he could find no racial bias in police shootings, you should know that the folks that thrive on misinformation will NOT go away quietly.

I stopped listening to books like this years ago, because it takes me too long to listen when I am making corrective notes. Yet, if you are a trial attorney, I recommend the book for the sole reason that you will learn bite marks and arson investigations are not as conclusive as they may at first appear. For the rest of you, if you read one of the books listed at the beginning, you read them all.

[Julie Roland · Rating 5 out of 5]

You Might Love This Book, Even If You Hate Books

If you enjoy Michelle Alexander (The New Jim Crow), Adam Cohen (Supreme Inequality), Matthew Desmond (Evicted), Malcolm Gladwell (Talking to Strangers, Blink), Robin DiAngelo (White Fragility), and Ibram X. Kendi (How to be an Antiracist, Stamped from the Beginning), then you'll enjoy Justin Brooks. His book is in good company on any bookshelf featuring texts which shed new light on the broken systems and cycles of America. From criminal justice to housing, poverty to racism, any author who can explore the intersectionality of our country's problems with thoughtful nuance deserves to be read. Brooks does this and more as he deftly explores trends within a system so flawed that the innocent regularly get caught in the crossfire.

Brooks himself is an outside-the-box thinker and visionary. With a tasteful amount of personal anecdotes woven into a fact-based and historical analysis, this book makes for enjoyable light reading (in spite of its heavy content) and therefore easy learning. Read it before bed or listen to the audiobook on your commute (in fact, recommend listening either way--the author reads it himself and his accent is a fun relic of an older generation).

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an eye opening book that was unfortunately not surprising to me as a criminal defense attorney. One of the best aspects of the book is how well Justin explains the legal concepts for non-lawyers. Most people are fortunate that the criminal justice system doesn't touch their lives, and they are shocked to discover the inequities they face if they get there. It's important for all of us to be outraged by how easy it is to get convicted of a crime even though you are innocent. Our collective outrage can drive change. Thank you, Justin, for your life's work and for sharing this book with us.

[K Addams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read book for anyone and everyone.

In the closing statements, he quotes Benjamin Franklin: "Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are just as outraged as those who are." This rings very true for me, I have known since high school that there is a lot of injustice within justice systems around the world. However, it wasnt until I started experiencing these problems secondhand that I started to think about what that means for the people caught in that web. Even then, I never really knew how many ways that someone could have their life flipped upside down by our justice system. Even the most well intentioned police, detectives, judges, juries, and prosecutors can make mistakes that can ruin someones life without policies and procedures in place to look for and correct these mistakes.

This book lays out many (but certainly not all) of the practices in our justice system that make it so that nobody is safe from being mistreated within it, especially minorities and the poor. The cases he speaks about are of normal people who have had the misfortune of getting entangled in the legal system. Its hard not to see yourself or someone you love getting caught in a similar predicament.

You dont have to know someone affected to begin to care, you just have to have to allow yourself to be empathetic of the people who are being mistreated. It does not matter who you are, if you commited a crime or not, if youre a victim, or if you are family/friends of someone in the system, every person deserves to be treated fairly and respectfully in the justice system, every step of the way.

[Anjie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You’re Innocent! Don’t think it could happen to you? Author and founding director of the California Innocence Project Justin Brooks (@justinobrooks) has receipts. With crisp, clear, engaging, and often heartbreaking writing, he presents actual cases of real exonerated prisoners. He debunks common beliefs that only low income, poorly educated, criminally-adjacent people land in these nightmares. Some scenarios he describes- again, from actual cases— include 1) “you hired the wrong lawyer”... 2) “you got a jury that was blinded by science”... 3) “you have or care for a sick child”... and 4) “you (kind of) look like other people in the world. That’s just to name a few. The sick child chapter will frustrate and unsettle you, but then all of the cases show that there is work to be done at every level of our justice system. Buy it, read it, keep it handy because even if you’re living like a monk, it only takes one incident to bring the full force of the law on you. It pays to be prepared. (BTW you’ll never watch “Law & Order” the same way again.)

[KaWoodtiereads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very informative book written by a lawyer, a law professor, and the founder of the California Innocence Project. The mission of his work is to raise awareness of the inadequacies within our criminal justice system that create wrongful convictions of innocent people and to work with a team of lawyers to appeal these decisions and free those so unjustly incarcerated. Within this book, he highlights many cases that show how one can be accused and convicted of crimes they didn't commit. Topics include inadequate police investigations, disregard for evidence (collection, storage, and interpretation), unlawful interrogation practices, inadequacy of lawyers and their ability to defend their clients, racism and inherent biases, and juries that are easily persuaded by emotion over facts. There is a lot to be infuriated about here, and it's frustrating to learn more about the ways in which the criminal justice system is unjust.

[Megan Fitz-Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! This book explains some of the ways that wrongful convictions happen while interweaving stories of people who have fallen victim to that awful circumstance.

People spend significant portions of their lives in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. Importantly, it’s not an inevitable outcome but rather a consequence of vulnerabilities in our justice system like junk science and overzealous prosecutors.

A jury may subconsciously believe a person in the defendant’s chair has done something wrong, without adequate evidence, but this book emphasizes the importance of pursuing the truth in justice rather than confirming these preconceived, biased, and often incorrect notions.

[MJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a law student interested in Civil law I was not sure I would like the subject of this book at first. I felt I would have a bias as my mind tended to think more like a prosecutor rather than a defense attorney. However, after reading this book my bias slowly withered as I was proven over and over that my initial thought that someone was guilty was grossly wrong. As much as I tried to find arguments explaining away why a conviction was not wrongful Brooks proved my thoughts wrong every time. I recommend this book of course to any one interested in defense work but also to all skeptics who think wrongful convictions are not a serious issue because after reading I am sure it is.

[Breezy B]

One of the most compelling books I've read in a while. Author Justin Brooks,esq. details the ends and outs of the American Court system over the last 30 years. I strongly believe every Law School and Criminal Justice Student should read this text, it not only gives insight to the wrongfully convicted but also a look into the Legal systems from all sides. How you can directly see the passion behind the attorney's, judges and participants in the legal system who work directly with Justin Brooks. Great read.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a pre-law student who hopes to one day be a trial attorney, this book was eye-opening. Mr. Brooks created the perfect balance between legal analysis and personal stories, which puts a human face to wrongful convictions. This book also personifies the injustices in the criminal justice system and reminds readers of the human cost of these systemic failures. It imposes a call to action and reform, while being honest and critical, yet hopeful and clear. A must read for anyone interested in making a difference and opening their eyes...which should be everyone!! 100/10!!!

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title speaks for itself. This book nosedives into the harsh realities of our criminal justice system, and how appallingly easy it is to be wrongfully convicted. Justin Brooks recalls firsthand experiences in his previous cases with innocent clients, 36 of which he has been successful in exonerating through his incredible work at the California Innocence Project. Our criminal legal system is broken, and it is inspiring work like Brooks’ that will one day fix it. A must read!

[KHoopMan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful examination of the failures of our justice system… but also an empowering book about how there is hope for improvement. My heart breaks for the wrongfully convicted and I am in awe of the lawyers who live in that world day after day. Justin Brooks makes each case come alive again. Fabulous book!

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book interesting and terrifying in equal measures. Having followed wrongful conviction for a number of years I know of many of the issues presented in the book. It was interesting to get more detail and more cases. I am based in the UK but if ever arrested will only give my name, ask for a solicitor and say nothing!

[Jody Gorran · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Wake-up Call: It could happen to you!

What an eye opener! Justin Brooks expanded my view of the range of “systemic “ problems in our “criminal legal system”. It certainly gave me pause for a heck of a lot of thought. Very well presented.