Book Blurb:
In 2002, Dan Slepian, a veteran producer for NBC’s Dateline, received a tip from a Bronx homicide detective that would change his life. Two men were serving twenty-five years to life in prison for a murder in 1990, the cop said, and he knew for a fact that they did not commit that crime. Haunted by what he had heard, Slepian began an investigation that eventually led to freedom for those two men, and launched him on a two-decade personal and professional journey through a system fiercely resistant to rectifying—or even acknowledging—its mistakes and their consequences. The Sing Sing: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice is an investigative journalist’s account of how he took on that system and of the years of prison visits, court hearings and powerful Dateline reporting it took to bring justice to those two men and four others imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. It is also the story of the deep and lasting friendships Slepian formed with the men whose cases he pursued, and how one of them—Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez—provided aid and counsel to him from his cell in Sing Sing prison until his own release in 2021 after decades behind bars.
My Review: 4.5 stars
The Sing Sing: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice had me completely awed at the flawed and often crooked criminal justice system.
As a fan of Dateline, I was thrilled for the opportunity to read/listen to this book. The author, a longtime producer at Dateline, who started his career on The Phil Donahue show, became an integral part of the show. He got incredibly invested into the plight of defending men who were falsely incarcerated.
It was absolutely crazy to learn about the evidence that proved six different prisoner’s innocence, yet it took years upon years to get justice. The friendships Slepian with the prisoners and their families over the years was quite touching.Fans of real crime shows will love this book. Narrated by the author, this was a nice one to listen to.
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