Join the Des Moines Public Library and Beaverdale Books for an afternoon with author and Innocence Project attorney, M. Chris Fabricant. Erica Nichols Cook from the Wrongful Convictions Division in Des Moines will moderate a talk with M. Chris Fabricant as they discuss his book, Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System and his work with the Innocence Project.

About Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System:

“From CSI to Forensic Files to the celebrated reputation of the FBI crime lab, forensic scientists have long been mythologized in American popular culture as infallible crime solvers. Juries put their faith in “expert witnesses” and innocent people have been executed as a result. Innocent people are still on death row today, condemned by junk science…Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System chronicles the fights to overturn their wrongful convictions and to end the use of the “science” that destroyed their lives. Weaving together courtroom battles from Mississippi to Texas to New York City and beyond, Fabricant takes the reader on a journey into the heart of a broken, racist system of justice and the role forensic science plays in maintaining the status quo.”

Beaverdale Books will have copies available for sale and signing.

Event will be live-streamed as well for those who are unable to attend in person.

About the Author

Chris Fabricant is a criminal defense attorney in New York City. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Tonya, and their two children, Oscar and Francesca.

Author John Grisham has praised Fabricant on his book stating, “No one in America will ever know the number of innocent people convicted, sent to prison, and even executed because of the flood of rotten forensics and bogus scientific opinions presented to juries. In this intriguing and beautifully crafted book, Innocence Project lawyer M. Chris Fabricant illustrates how wrongful convictions occur, and he makes it obvious how they could be prevented.”

This event is co-hosted by the Des Moines Public Library.