Falsely Convicted - by Neil Mercer (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Nine wrongful imprisonments. Nine innocent men and women freed.

Australia has a robust legal system. According to conventional wisdom, only the guilty end up behind bars. The reality is far more complex and, for First Nations Australians and other minorities in particular, the law can become a trap - one that has condemned completely innocent people to years, even decades, of wrongful imprisonment.

Impeccably researched and compelling told, Falsely Convicted exposes shocking injustices in all their devastating detail. These cases reveal how fragile truth can be, how easily lives can be destroyed, and how freedom - when it arrives - often comes only after everything else has been lost.

There's teacher Josephine Greensill, whose life was upended by allegations from two former students from three decades before. Henry Keogh, who discovered his fiancé e dead in the bath, only to be accused - and convicted - of her murder due to catastrophic forensic failures. And Gene Gibson, an 18-year-old Aboriginal man from one of Australia's remotest communities, convicted of a killing by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, hindered by language barriers and entrenched prejudice.

In Falsely Convicted, Walkley Award-winning crime reporter and bestselling author Neil Mercer turns his investigative skills toward the most chilling crimes of all: the ones committed by the system itself.

About the Author

Neil Mercer has been a print and television journalist for more than 45 years. He started his career as a cadet reporter on the West Australian and has also written for the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald. His first job in television was as a producer for 60 Minutes before moving to the ABC's Four Corners as an on-camera reporter. Neil was a presenter on Channel Seven's 11AM, Today Tonight, The Times and Face to Face. He was also the leader of the ABC's National Reporting Team responsible for the network's television, radio and digital investigations. Neil is the winner of a Walkley Award and a NSW Law Society Award for Excellence in Legal Reporting. He is the bestselling author of Falsely Convicted, The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop, Fate: Inside the Backpacker Murders Investigation and co-author, with Ruby Jones, of Barrenjoey Road.