 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in No Smoke for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Innocent people are being locked up in our prisons, convicted of the most horrific crimes, on a regular basis. These are not one-off, tragic mistakes, but rather a routine, everyday occurrence. For every high-profile miscarriage of justice that we hear about, there are dozens more that never make the news. No Smoke examines just some of these cases, highlighting the very human tragedy of wrongful conviction, and pointing out the unthinkable: this could happen to any one of us! Sandra Lean's NO SMOKE offers a vitally-important contribution to British social awareness. Already the subject of much debate within the judicial system, this book reviews seven specific real-life cases and in doing so exposes some truly shocking practices within the UK justice system. The cases are exhaustively researched and documented in an easy-to-read contemporary style, and the conclusions presented in an articulate and professional format. Review copies have been highly praised, and the book has already been recommended by sitting judiciary as an insightful (if rather disturbing) guide to the inner workings of British justice. The author is currently a PhD candidate in criminal justice at Edinburgh University.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How the justice system really works,
By Maggie (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: No Smoke (Paperback)
The jury has reached a guilty verdict, so the defendant is guilty: right?
Sandra Lean's book describes cases in which there was glaringly obvious "reasonable doubt", where the defendant was not formally identified in the vicinity of the crime scene, where there was no DNA and/or forensic evidence. The convictions she describes were founded on crucial, unsubstantiated evidence given by someone with a vested interested in convicting the defendant, and selective interpretation of the facts by pathologists and forensic scientists. In all the seven cases she covers, the convicted person was of good character and had no previous convictions or psychological conditions. I can't say whether every one of these seven people is innocent, but it's safe to say that none of them had a fair trial. The sad thing is that the author has highlighted seven such cases, but she could easily have picked seventy. The jury has just reached a guilty verdict, so the defendant is guilty? Not necessarily. If you think the British justice system is the best in the world, read this book. If you are satisfied that the British justice system gets it right most of the time, read this book. If you think you have done nothing wrong so you are not at risk of a miscarriage of justice, read this book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First class review of recent miscarriages of justice,
By
This review is from: No Smoke (Paperback)
This book provides invaluable insight into the British justice system in a manner anyone can understand and everyone should be aware of. Having subsequently met the author I am also aware that the text is not simply an academic viewpoint but a heartfelt and passionate stand-point based on thorough examination of each featured case.
As a result, Sandra Lean has demonstrated not only an ability to highlight the flaws in each case but an awareness of the emotional turmoil experienced by the accused and families alike. A quality so often void from others writing from a purely sterile perspective.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You could be next,
By
This review is from: No Smoke (Paperback)
Sandra Lean's carefully researched book covers the cases of seven people wrongly convicted of murder - Derek Christian, John Taft, Gordon Park, Simon Hall, Luke Mitchell, Susan May and Sion Jenkins,Power, Resistance, Knowledge: The Epistemology of Policing spanning a period of twelve years. Each case is clearly presented, and each account, indeed the whole book, is driven by outrage against a system which leads so casually to such frightening miscarriages of justice.
The book is worth reading for the accounts of the cases alone. Each account has been checked by the miscarriage of justice victims themselves, and their families and supporters. The book should be bought and read for the accounts of the cases alone. You could then draw your own conclusions about how easily a miscarriage of justice can happen, especially it seems in these very serious cases. Sandra Lean adds to this a carefully considered analysis of the features of miscarriage of justice cases. The book is an attempt to answer how the prosecutions could succeed despite the presence of them. The difficulty with accounts like this which are fuelled by outrage is that, however careful and accurate they are, they do not fully answer this question. By the end of each chapter on a case, we know very clearly why the person concerned should not have been convicted, indeed should never have been put on trial. But we do not know why the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was a case to answer, why the trial judge thought the case could be safely left to a jury to decide, and why the jury felt sure that the person was guilty. In the final chapters Ms Lean reviews flaws in police and court procedures, expert witness practices, the role of the media and the defects of the appeal system. Since the same problems occur again and again, she argues that "we have to conclude that there is something more than simple chance or coincidence at play. Is it possible,"she asks, "that some quite deliberate and calculated processes are undertaken knowingly, and acceptably, within the various organisations which make up the criminal justice system...? If so, on whose authority are these processes sanctioned?" (pp. 158-9). This sounds like a conspiracy. But where is the evidence for a conspiracy spreading from Scotland to the south coast of England? In the end, Sandra Lean doesn't plump for a conspiracy, and instead proposes a series of reforms to regulate the various criminal justice agencies and review cases thoroughly. She thinks that we, the public, should "demand that our justice system is based on a search for the truth...". As any police officer would say when investigating a crime: "I'm only trying to find the truth." Or is perhaps truth itself the problem: how it is found or produced, who is able to say, and from what insitutional position, what the truth is (and who is disqualified from being able to tell the truth)? We need to think hard about what we want to have accepted as truth before we can tackle the strange kinds of evidence produced by the police, accepted as powerful proof by juries, and upheld by appeal judges. Books like this provide us with the information and analysis which is essential if we are ever to challenge a system which, year by year, extends the problems which lead to wrongful convictions, and, of course, encourages the perpetrators of horrific crimes to seek more victims.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
