I've just finished reading a book entitle "Law and Disorder" by John Douglas. John Douglas is a former FBI profiler (over 25 years) who has been involved in such cases as the Jon Benet murder case and other high-profile murder cases.
Although a definite believer in the death penalty, in this book he highlights several cases where defendants were found guilty and sentenced to death, even though there was no real evidence!
In some cases, he became involved after-the-fact and was able to help free death row inmates after performing profiling that led to the real killer(s).
What I found interesting was how often law enforcement would lie to suspects to coerce "confessions", even providing the suspects with the "correct" facts of the case whenever, the confessor's version differed from the reality!
Although, I have always been a proponent of harsh punishment for individuals that deliberately commit crimes, I find it repugnant that the officials on the government's side of law enforcement and justice are allowed to lie and commit other acts of dishonesty and lack of integrity, in order to get a conviction!
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get an "insiders" take on the state of our criminal justice system, particularly in the realm of high-publicity/high-pressure cases.
RickThai