Overview

In 1989, Texas executed Carlos DeLuna, a poor Hispanic man with childlike intelligence, for the murder of Wanda Lopez, a convenience store clerk. His execution passed unnoticed for years until a team of Columbia Law School faculty and students found that DeLuna almost certainly was innocent. This book documents DeLuna's conviction, which was based on a single, nighttime, cross-ethnic eyewitness identification with no corroborating forensic evidence. DeLuna's defense, that another man named Carlos had committed the crime, was not taken seriously. The evidence the Columbia team uncovered reveals that Hernandez not only existed but was well known to the police and prosecutors. He had a long history of violent crimes similar to the one for which DeLuna was executed. This book and its website (thewrongcarlos.net) reproduce law-enforcement, crime lab, lawyer, court, social service, media, and witness records, documenting one of the most comprehensive investigations into a criminal case in U.S. history. The result is eye-opening yet may not be unusual. Faulty eyewitness testimony, shoddy legal representation, and prosecutorial misfeasance continue to put innocent people at risk of execution. The principal investigators conclude with novel suggestions for improving accuracy among the police, prosecutors, forensic scientists, and judges.

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James S. Liebman is Simon F. Rifkind Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and a nationally recognized expert on the death penalty. He is coauthor of Federal Habeas Corpus Practice and Procedure and A Modern Approach to Evidence: Text, Problems, Transcripts, and Cases. The Columbia DeLuna Project is a multiyear examination of the execution of Carlos DeLuna, conducted by James S. Liebman and five now-graduated Columbia Law students: Shawn Crowley, Andrew Markquart, Lauren Rosenberg, Lauren Gallo White, and Daniel Zharkovsky. Johnny Heller is an award-winning audiobook narrator who has recorded hundreds of titles. A multiple Earphones and Audie Award winner, he was named a 2008 and 2009 Listen Up winner by Publishers Weekly and a Best Voice of 2008 and 2009--as well as one of the top fifty voices of the 20th Century--by AudioFile. A veteran stage, television, and commercial actor, he is also a stand-up comic, author, and playwright.

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