Provides a sustained examination and analysis of the factors that lead juries to find defendants "not guilty"

As scores of death row inmates are exonerated by DNA evidence and innocence commissions are set up across the country, conviction of the innocent has become a well-recognized problem. But our justice system makes both kinds of errors—we acquit the guilty and convict the innocent—and exploring the reasons why people are acquitted can help us to evaluate the efficiency and fairness of our criminal justice system. Not Guilty provides a sustained examination and analysis of the factors that lead juries to find defendants “not guilty,” as well as the connection between those factors and the possibility of factual innocence, examining why some criminal trials result in not guilty verdicts and what those verdicts suggest about the accuracy of our criminal process.

"Excellent acquisition for criminal justice, law, and crime collections. Summing up: highly recommended. All readership levels." - Choice

"In their terrific if misleadingly titled new book, Not Guilty: Are the Acquitted Innocent?, Daniel Givelber and Amy Farrell ask a practically unanswerable question: how many defendants who are acquitted at trial are actually innocent?... it is immensely valuable for the close look it provides at what we know, and can know, about the correctness of jury verdicts." - Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books

"This interdisciplinary scholarship between law and a social science is sorely needed in the United States and I hope Givelber and Farrell have begun a trend that is so well established in other countries such as Germany and England. The authors are to be commended for writing a book that is thought provoking and vitally important in understand an ignored area of our justice system." - Social and Legal Studies

"This book is powerful, strong, and convincing. It is written at a level that undergraduates can understand and it avoids arcane academic language so that the book can be read and understood by practitioners, academics, and the general public...The book is quite informative, but it is also succinct and can be read quickly and easily. This book is likely to inform our understanding of jury behavior and of the nature of acquittals for years to come." - Crime Law and Social Change