To begin your review, please briefly summarize the content of the book.
In addition to pointing out its main arguments, be sure to highlight the things that you found most interesting and thought provoking in it. A paragraph or two should be sufficient for this.
Then, choose one of the following issues to consider in the rest of your review: Issue #1, The Accused OR Issue #2, The Process.
For Issue #1, The Accused, please address the following kinds of questions:
What social factors predisposed Ben Spencer to be a target for criminal accusation, even for something he didn’t do?
Is there anything in his actual behavior — before, during, or after the time he was initially suspected — that he might have done differently to reduce the consequences of being targeted for this crime?
What is incarceration actually like for prisoners in the contemporary criminal justice system?
Do you think it makes a difference in a person’s experience of prison that he or she is actually innocent of the crime alleged?
What do you think accounts for the way in which Ben Spencer handled his time in prison?
What factors do you think helped him deal with his lengthy incarceration and what factors worked against him?
What if any role do you see for wrongfully convicted people like Ben Spencer in improving the criminal justice process going forward?
For Issue #2, The Process, please address the following kinds of questions:
Where in the case against Ben Spencer did the process first start to go wrong?
At what point in the process did the greatest single error occur?
Where were opportunities to correct the direction of the case missed?
Considering the many individuals involved in this case, who do you think behaved the worst in it?
Who do you think was most responsible for the wrongful conviction that came about?
On the other hand, who do you think behaved most admirably in it?
Who did the most to try to keep the process from error in the first place?
Who did the most to try to correct the error once it had occurred?
Given that every wrongfully-convicted person who is ultimately exonerated experiences a kind of victory at the end of his or her case, what factors can you see at work leading to this victory for Ben?
What does Ben’s case suggest about the best ways to prevent wrongful convictions in the future?
