At any given time, between 2 percent and 10 percent of convicted persons in U.S. prisons are innocent. With 2.3 million people incarcerated in federal, state and local prisons and jails, that means that anywhere from 46,000 and 230,000 who were wrongfully convicted.
Louisiana, which is in head-to-head competition with Oklahoma for the highest incarceration rate in the civilized world, presently has 58,000 persons in prisons and jails. That means that between 1200 and 5800 could have been wrongfully convicted.
I have just published my 10th book, 101 Wrongful Convictions in Louisiana that examines how 101 persons got convicted of crimes they did not commit. The costs of these wrongful convictions ae incalculable not only in terms of the hundreds of years in cumulative time spent behind bars unjustly and the shattered lives and families, but the astronomical financial cost, as well.
The 101 wrongfully convicted individuals profiled in this book received more than $60 million in compensation for sloppy prosecutorial work, shoddy police investigations, mistaken eyewitness identification, uncaring judges and junk science that resulted in their convictions. And that doesn’t even count the cost of housing, feeding and caring for the prisoners, the salaries paid cops and prosecutors for inadequate investigative and prosecutorial work, or the cost of trials to put them away. Add to all that the fact that when the wrong person is convicted, that means the state has spent hundreds of millions of dollars for “justice” but the real perpetrator is still out there.
The book sells for $25.00, including shipping. To order your copy, click HERE to pay by credit card. You will see a message that you’re making a donation to LouisianaVoice. That’s because this is a link to LouisianaVoice. DO NOT, however, check the square indicating a monthly donation; that’s for our regular donors. If you prefer, you may just send a check for $25.00 to me, Tom Aswell, 107 North College West, Denham Springs, LA. 70726.
Be sure to include your full name and mailing address so that I may send you the book.
Louisiana Voice 
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