AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: The Sing Sing Files by Dan Slepian
REVIEW:
The Sing Sing Files by Dan Slepian - Strangely enough this book just came to me recently - it seems books about those wrongfully accused and convicted are finding their way to me right and left. This was another fascinating read about several men wrongfully convicted of crimes and the fight to get them out of prison. I am no longer surprised at the lengths the prosecution and judges will go to not have to admit they were wrong in the first place.
Written and narrated by Dan Slepian the NBC dateline producer who spent years working not only to free these men but to also bring their stories to light despite the efforts of those in power to keep them in prison who would rather have not had their stories brought to light.
Well investigated this book offered the original audio from interviews that Dan took of the prisoners and others involved in the case. It was an interesting read but I think I'm burned out on these books. The criminal justice system in the USA is so broken and no one in power seems to be able or willing to fix it. I know saying that I'm burned out seems cruel in light of so many people who are still spending time behind bars despite being innocent. It is my hope that more people will join the fight to free these people and bring stories like this to light. The more people learn about the miscarriages of justice that continue to happen the more voices will be added to this cause. I will do my part by bringing these books to the attention of others.
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Publisher: Macmillan Audio
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SYNOPSIS:
In 2002, Dan Slepian, a veteran producer for NBC’s Dateline, received a tip from a Bronx homicide detective that two men were serving twenty-five years to life in prison for a 1990 murder they did not commit.
Haunted by what the detective had told him, Slepian began an investigation of the case that eventually resulted in freedom for the two men and launched Slepian on a two-decade personal and professional journey into a deeply flawed justice system fiercely resistant to rectifying—or even acknowledging—its mistakes and their consequences.
The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice is Slepian’s account of challenging that system. The story follows Slepian on years of prison visits, court hearings, and street reporting that led to a series of powerful Dateline episodes and eventually to freedom for four other men and to an especially deep and lasting friendship with one of them, Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez. From his cell in Sing Sing, JJ aided Slepian in his investigations until his own release in 2021 after decades in prison.
Like Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, The Sing Sing Files is a deeply personal account of wrongful imprisonment and the flaws in our justice system, and a powerful argument for reckoning and accountability. Slepian’s extraordinary book, at once painful and full of hope, shines a light on an injustice whose impact the nation has only begun to confront.
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