Skip to content
Connect
Stories

Barred: Why the Innocent Can’t Get Out of Prison | Daniel Medwed

People in this story

Daniel Medwed, Professor of Criminal Justice; Distinguished Professor of Law

A groundbreaking exposé of how our legal system makes it nearly impossible to overturn wrongful convictions 

Thousands of innocent people are behind bars in the United States. But proving their innocence and winning their release is nearly impossible. 

In 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. 

Offering 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.  

More Stories

ABCD to offer teens more summer jobs

05.24.2023

Meta fine shows EU is ‘regulatory superpower,’ Northeastern expert says

05.24.2023

DeSantis prepares to ‘thread very fine needle’ that he’s like Trump — but not Trump

05.25.23
In the News