Sketching upon stories from his own career, Godsey shares how innate psychological defects in judges, police, lawyers, and juries coupled with a ‘tough on crime’ environment can cause investigations to be fallible, leading to the convictions of innocent people.

Godsey explores distinct psychological human being weaknesses natural in the offender justice system-confirmation bias, memory space malleability, cognitive dissonance, bureaucratic denial, dehumanization, and others-and illustrates each with stories from his period as a hard-nosed prosecutor and as an attorney for the Ohio Innocence Project.

He also lays bare the criminal justice system’s internal political stresses. How does the fact that judges, sheriffs, and prosecutors are elected officials impact how they watch cases? How can defense attorneys support clients when most are overworked and underpaid? And how do juries overcome bias leading them to believe that law enforcement and expert witnesses know more than they actually about what evidence means?

This book sheds a harsh light on the unintentional yet routine injustices committed by those charged with upholding justice.