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In the early 1990s, Besicorp, an upstate New York company dedicated to the development of alternative energy sources, was targeted for take-over by corporate raiders. When Besicorp's founder and CEO, Michael Zinn, refused to succumb to their extortionate demands, these men began a campaign of malicious litigation and character assassination designed to instigate a criminal investigation. As a result, Zinn was pursued by an overzealous federal prosecutor. Indicted and under severe pressure, Zinn decided to plea-bargain. He was sentenced to a term in federal prison for what was at worst a minor and unintentional regulatory breach. Mad-Dog Prosecutors gives a chilling account of the vicious methods used to despoil productive corporations and shows in detail how no one, no matter how prominent, public-spirited, or well-positioned, is safe from unfair prosecution. In passing, we are given a vivid and horrifying glimpse of the criminal justice system, and shown how ordinary people get caught in the clutches of a prosecutorial process that has truly gone mad. The book is also a warm and human story of the devastating personal effects of federal prosecution on the families of people targeted by the courts, and the personal testimony of a forthright, capable, and conscientious businessman.

"A criminal defense attorney goes beyond the popular Netflix documentary to detail the legal nightmare that led to the conviction of Steven Avery"--

In the hands of a skilled trial lawyer, the closing argument offers the courtroom's greatest dramatic possiblilities. It is the advocate's last opportunity to convince the jury of their version of the "truth" before the defendent's fate is sealed. Every argument included here is a finely crafted verbal work of art - they represent the modern-day, highest form of an ancient profession and art: that of the storyteller. The only available collection of great closing arguments - complete with insightful analysis and biographical profiles of the lawyers involved - this fascinating volume gathers the passionate finales of the most celebrated cases in history. Included are the climactic closes to the Nuremberg War Trials; Gerry Spence's crusade against the Kerr-McGee Nuclear Power Plant after the mysterious death of Karen Silkwood; Vincent Bugliosi's successful prosecution of cult leader Charles Manson and his followers; the astounding acquittal of John Delorean despite video evidence of his offences and the prosecution resulting from the Mai Lai massacre.

The stories of some 400 innocent Americans who were falsely convicted of capital crimes.

This is based on the true-life story about Michael Lynn Brown. This story is about injustice in our world and how that injustice was dealt to one man. This is a story about how injustice can have a long lasting effect...

In 2006, Steve Sirois was sentenced to serve 35 years in a Texas prison for a crime he didn't commit. He and his older brother, Michael, weren't especially close growing up-fourteen years and four other siblings crowded the space between them-but their relationship changed when Steve was accused of a horrendous crime, aggravated sexual assault of a child. After the conviction, Michael started helping Steve write his appeals, but what he saw in the trial transcripts didn't make sense. How could a jury have convicted his brother based on that testimony? In her affidavit, Steve's accuser gave vague dates for the crime, but soon abandoned those for different dates, and even replaced the details of her claims with new ones. She had accused Steve of a horrific crime, but he was adamant, swearing, "I didn't do it. It never happened." There was no crime scene to investigate, no forensic evidence, no semen stains or pubic hairs to provide DNA, no weapons, no sex tape. Nothing but his accuser's words. Michael wondered if he could prove that the incidents Steve had been charged with never happened. But how? Using affidavits, court transcripts, and interviews; along with additional evidence from public information requests and other factual data, the book lays out a devastating portrait of an untruthful accuser, an overzealous prosecutor, a jury that made a deal to swap votes in order to gain a conviction, and the series of lies that led to that outcome.

When Teresa Halbach went missing and was presumed dead, the police targeted Steven Avery for the crime. But Avery’s 16-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey told the police that he saw Halbach driving away from Avery’s property the day she supposedly was murdered. This version of events would be devastating to the state’s case if it ever reached Avery’s jury. The police decided to interrogate young Dassey again. For their next go-around they questioned him four times in 48 hours—each time without an adult present and often without reading him his Miranda rights. During this process, the interrogators not only coerced the learning-disabled child into changing his story, but they also got him to confess to participating in the murder! Even though Dassey’s so-called confession was contradicted by all of the physical evidence, the jury believed it and found him guilty. Now, more than a decade after the trial, the saga lives on. Although a federal district court reversed Dassey’s conviction, a flip-flopping federal appeals court eventually reversed the reversal. Dassey remains convicted and incarcerated; the Supreme Court of the United States is his last hope. Anatomy of a False Confession: The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey answers several questions, including: Why did Dassey agree to talk to his interrogators in the first place? Why weren’t they required to read him his Miranda rights? Most significantly, how did the interrogators get Dassey to confess to a crime he did not commit? If Dassey was innocent, where did he get the details for his so-called confession? Why did the jury ignore the physical evidence and convict Dassey of murder? And why did the federal courts reverse Dassey’s conviction, only to reverse their own reversal? Anatomy of a False Confession takes the reader inside the interrogation room and inside the courtroom to expose the interrogators’ tricks, the prosecutors’ ploys, and the judicial sleight of hand that conspired to put Dassey behind bars—probably for the rest of his life. The book also discusses several ways that the law should be reformed to avoid future injustices.