MEAN JUSTICE. A Town's Terror, A Prosecutor's Power A Betrayal of Innocence

Hardback. The Pulitzer Prize winning author presents a portrait of a California community so obsessed with making itself safe from crime that it created one of the toughest justice systems in the country - and, in the process, sent a shocking number of innocent men and women to prison for crimes they did not commit. The author weaves this story of wrongful conviction and justice miscarried around the plight of retired high-school principal Patrick O. Dunn, a law-and-order conservative, who never doubted the methods used in making the streets of his beloved Bakersfield, California safe. But after his wife disappeared and he became the prime suspect in her murder motivated, it was said, by the millions she inherited from a previous marriage - Dunn found himself in a murky law-enforcement Wonderland in which the presumption of innocence seemed a myth and the authorities hid crucial evidence and testimony, thereby ensuring his conviction. Hume's investigation of Dunn's case has revealed for the first time the errors and misconduct that put an otherwise law-abiding man behind bars for life. Misconduct by police and prosecutors, biased and incompetent investigations, and politicised prosecutions have led to the wrongful prosecution of 90 other men and women in this oil-and-farm boom town just 2 hours north of Los Angeles. Many have served long years in prison before their convictions were finally overturned and their names cleared. With Endnotes and Appendices. 491pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw. A heavy book which may require additional postage.