A startling look at the US justice system. He focuses mainly on bite mark evidence, but does touch on arson detection and the technicalities that can haunt a conviction not allowing for justice to be done. The thing I always wonder is why it doesn't trouble these prosecutors and judges that if they have convicted the wrong person it means that the real perpetrator is still on the loose continuing to commit crimes. Yet they still seem to be married to an obviously wrong conclusion. Well read. Compelling narrative. Somewhat discouraging outlook on things.

I was interested in the premise of true crime and junk science. This is a very heart-rending look at the lives of people who were wronged by Junk Science.
The author has two important storylines to convey. One is the rise of Junk Science and the acceptance of it in the court of law. The other contains the stories of individuals who might have or were helped when the truth came to light about the evidence used to convict them in the first place.
It was fascinating and lived up to the title. There are two types of readers to whom this content will appeal, people who know something of the American justice system or those interested in it in the first place. A plain interest in junk science will not endear its content because of the routes it takes.
It is extremely scary to imagine being in the shoes of those innocent people who were put on death row or closed just because the lead officer decided it made sense. I have been a fan of American Crime shows before, and some of the takeaways I subconsciously gathered from them were highlighted in this story.
The narrator did a great job of bringing the incredulity on the part of the defence when 'scientists' spoke the way they did to the forefront. The only drawback with the format of the book was the back and forth when it came to the cases and the progression of the science. One has to remember who's who and their cases since their journey's conclusion is only discussed at the very end. Unfortunately, not all have happy endings.
It was an illuminating book, but I just wish it had been a little easier to follow or linear. I think much of this content will already be familiar to activists in this field. It is pretty heavy for an average consumer. That is something one must know going in. Heavy in terms of what is at stake for the people concerned!
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

This was not the book I was expecting. I expected it to focus on "Junk Science" and while it did talk about junk science, mainly bite marks, the focus was clearly on wrongful convictions. It was a enjoyable book and I did learn a lot. I would strongly encourage others to read it.
This is one of those books that make me wish we could give half star rating and it really should be 3.5 star rating!

This book brings awareness to junk science and the role it plays in the wrongful conviction of people.

I found the concept of this book absolutely fascinating and also absolutely infuriating. The crimson justice system, though flawed, is supposed to protect, and this highlights some major flaws in the system.

I liked the case examples, but I didn’t care for the fact that the cases bounced around quite a bit. I wanted to hear about a case from beginning to end, how junk science was involved and then go to the next and keep building. Because things bounced around so much, I found myself getting cases mixed up. When innocent people are convicted of crimes they didn’t commit, I want to remember their names, because most people won’t.

I also would have liked more information about junk science beyond bite marks. The author mentions handwriting analysis, tire treads, ballistics, blood spatter analysis, etc. I loved the sections that went into arson and hair comparison as junk science, so expanding the topics even more would have been great because aside from those two, it felt like most of the book was about bite marks.

If the author writes anything else on this subject, I will definitely pick it up, because there’s a lot of interesting (and devastating) information out there.


I’dd like to thank NetGalley, RB Media, and M. Chris Fabricant for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was an utterly fascinating read! If you love true crime or criminal justice type television shows, this book sheds a ton of light on landmark cases based on questionable scientific tests and the reason the things shown on your favorite CSI version may not hold water in the courtroom. There is a lot of graphic and violent content, which includes sexual assault, and while I found that parts of that could have been toned down for a better read, the scientific information made it worthwhile.
I listened to the audiobook version of this title and thought the narration was great and really kept the story moving along.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

Started out well but went too long, jumped back & forth between stories, and spent a lot more time on forensic odontology (bite marks) than the title & book description would have you believe. Guess the cover art was a clue though. I would have liked a more balanced look at other forms of junk forensic science mentioned (ie. Fire patterns).
Narrator was good.

Fascinating, a thoroughly researched and well explained deep dive into a variety junk science methods presented in the US as courtroom evidence. These flawed techniques have lead to the incarceration of many innocent people, some of whom are still in prison to this day (and that’s if they haven’t been put to death). Truly terrifying and a must read for those into the genre of True Crime.

Chris Fabricant is a lawyer from The Innocence Project. In <i>Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System</i>, he walks through how a few of his clients were falsely convicted due to junk science, especially the use of bite marks to identify a suspect.

True crime aficionados should definitely check this book out! It was baffling and disheartening to hear how courts would allow evidence from “experts” who don’t have to follow the testing that real science goes through before being accepted and how some of those experts would double down when evidence came up that they were wrong. Chris Henry Coffey did an excellent job narrating the audiobook.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC!

As a true-crime enthusiast, I found this book to be rather fascinating. As a someone who believes that doing things the way we've always done them is usually a recipe for disaster, I found it rather insightful. I was fascinated by all of the cases the authors dug into, some of which I was already familiar with. And I found the author's conclusions and suggestions for improvement to be well thought out. Definitely a must-read for crime and punishment enthusiasts.

This book was not quite what I expected but it was still interesting and informative. I feel a more appropriate tittle would be The History of Junk Science and our Justice System. As it was more about how in the 70s and 80s we started to use questionable forensic techniques, especially bite mark analysis. With multiple examples of herendous crimes and how they prosecuted who they thought was the responsible party.

I thought going into it it was a be how we are now using this junk science. Thankfully many of these techniques mentioned are either debunked or are less relied on due to advances in DNA analysis. But in the more current portion of the book it does shed light that those convicted with these junk science techniques in the past still have a hard road to prove their innocence, even if new evidence or techniques have been found.

This book is for anyone curious or interested in the history of forensics before DNA, our broken justice system or even just fans of true crime.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for an advanced audiobook for review.

This isn't the book I was expecting, but I did learn a bit from the book I got. I blame poor marketing on my expectations not being met. Can we rewrite the blurbs?

Junk Science is not a deep dive into how poor science and confirmation bias are used to wrongly convict, nor does it offer a plan to rise above. Instead it's a disjointed review of example cases where this “junk science” has been used by experts, resulting in wrongful convictions and even executions. The author works for The Innocence Project, so I get that he has an axe to grind, but I was hoping for more answers and fewer "this crappy thing happened because
bias" summaries.

An observation of a test regarding confirmation bias: "The fingerprints had not changed, only their minds."

I worked in genetics research for 13 years, so obviously I'm a strong advocate for forensic DNA evidence being treated as the only reliable and indisputable tool we currently have in our toolbox, both to convict and to overturn prior (erroneous) convictions. The author, M. Chris Fabricant, agrees with me on this point, but I'm not sure what we're supposed to do with this information.

Overall it's not a bad book, and it definitely raises awareness of issues with the use of expert testimony. Could it use an editor? Sure, but if you love forensics in general, you probably also love puzzles and this poorly organized book is a doozy.

I was fascinated by the title, the description and enjoyed 90% of the book. I think it was the lingering stories and the… At the end of the story begging for the ending. Having said that I learned a lot in this book and would highly recommend it. The narrator was very pleasant to listen to and did a great job with the audio. Besides what I’ve stated above the only other negative I take away from this is the fact that he alludes to this junk science being used for racist reasons from what I knew are ready and have learned since reading this book it seems to be equally disbursed on anyone they decide to hang the guilty banner on. That is not to say racism down exists, but , When you I have something made up by racist then it will probably be implemented for racist reasons. I think wouldn’t you point to America‘s pass chances are you’ll be pointing at someone who is racist or someone who was the victim of racism. Having said that of the book is totally worth reading. Especially if like me, you are into historical true crime and forensics because they tell historical true crime stories are heavy on forensics which I enjoyed very much. I would even be more than happy to read another book by this author and probably will. I was given this audiobook by Net Galley and I am leaving this review voluntarily. All opinions are my own please forgive the grammatical or punctuation errors , I am blind and dictate my review.

Really interesting book that made me think a lot. The narrator was the perfect choice for disseminating all this information.

By the time I finished this book I was actually convinced that Ted Bundy came THIS close to being a free man and was convicted based on morals, not scientific evidence. We couldn’t catch the guy who admitted to killing two dozen people because he left behind no evidence. Instead, scientific evidence was made up and we just went with it…for half a century. The fact that we still use dubious “scientific” methods for solving cases is baffling to me.

This book brings to light the history of forensic scientists who use “common sense” in order to match things found at a crime scene to a particular person (hair microscopy, tool mark impression, shoe prints, bite marks). This book has some hard cases, telling the hard truths about what happens when people value convictions and finality over integrity and justice. Fabricant’s skilled storytelling reminded me a lot of Just Mercy, these cases just as likely to tug on your heartstrings and infuriate you just the same. 4.5/5 ⭐️

This book is really interesting and informative and tells several stories of innocent men convicted using "junk science" e.g. bite mark evidence. It is such a travesty of justice for innocent men to sit in prison for decades, or even be executed, because of "evidence" that isn't even valid, while the real guilty party is allowed to live their life a free man.

The author is an innocent project attorney who works to get justice for these unfortunate men sitting in prison after being wrongfully convicted. The first person narrative of the author brings a personal perspective to the cases which are being analyzed in the book, and you can really sense the author is incensed over the injustice.

The book seems to also be well researched (in addition to maybe being first hand knowledge of the facts) and it is well written. I was engaged the entire way through, even though the overall message was somehow redundant -- i.e., that junk science is garbage.

Although Goodreads doesn't yet identify it as such, I think that this book falls under the true crime category, which is one of my favorite genres. So, if you like true crime stories, and Netflix shows such as The Staircase, then you will definitely like this book.

Junk Science I was able to listen to thanks to @netgalley and @recordedbooks . This amazing book covers the plight of innocent members of society incarcerated due to “junk science.”

This book starts off with a pretty graphic and violent rape scene, so don’t expect any sugar coating. The vast majority of the book dissects how bite marks are complete and utter junk science. Hence, the teeth 🦷 on the cover. Other examples included throughout are hair microscopy and fingerprint analysis. DNA 🧬 evidence basically should reign king, if at all possible.

I highly, highly recommend this one and the narrator does a fantastic job!

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What It's About: This book follows the story of three prisoners who were convicted by junk science and how M. Chris Fabricant of The Innocence Project fought to overturn their wrongful convictions.

My thoughts: I enjoy reading and learning about forensic - both the good and bad. So when I saw this book, it had my interest piqued, especially how junk science had put so many innocent people behind bars.

I liked that there is a lot of information in this book - cases, courtroom scenes, the criminal justice system, etc. I was hoping to learn about the different junk science and how they were misused to convict people but it focuses more on bite marks evidence.

Truth be told, this book is not easy to follow and it was not because of the science. The information did not flow well, and I had a hard time keeping up with the details of the cases. The information was not cohesive which left me confused most of the time.

But overall, this was an informative book! I am glad I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a wonderful job.


Pub. Date: April 5th, 2022

***Thank you RB Media Recorded Books and NetGalley for this gifted listening copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***

I was expecting a book that discussed (a chapter for each) the various types of junk science and how they are employed/the history and why they are not credible or are extremely biased with real-life example cases that can demonstrate these points.

This book, however, is more an expose or short anthologie of cases where junk science wrongly convicted.

That said, I have been fully persuaded only DNA evidence should be used and that, perhaps, the USA should be using neural court-appointed experts rather than letting each side pay for their own.

As a consumer of true crime media, I was excited to see this book available. I knew a little about the turning of ‘crime science’ and how its been disproven to be effective in a lot of cases. I was looking forward to this book in a way that told me ‘why’. Why doesn’t this science work? However, this book focuses much less on the why and more on the effects of what the ‘science’ has wrought mostly, false imprisonment cases.

The author works for the Innocence Project, so they already have a firm belief in the ‘junk’ of the science. I however, as an outsider of the system would have really loved a more in depth look at the why its junk first. As someone who was raised on CSI it was just a jarring realization that basically all of it was bunk. Of course, that’s just not the thesis of this book so you’ll just have to adjust your expectations.

I thought it was super interesting to hear the effects and stories that surround this system. How a faulty system was elevated again and again as factual to help prove cases. I did think this book could use some cut and paste editing. The stories didn’t flow very well, with us focusing on a few cases that would be picked up and dropped at random intervals. I had a hard time remembering the details between the cases.

The author talks a little about how many of these cases seem to be there to prove someone they already suspect and often suspected due to their race. It’s also a great argument against the death penalty when crimes are being disproven later.

Overall though, I thought this was an interesting non-fiction novel about something I knew very little about. Unlike a lot of non-fiction, I didn’t find my mind drifting or wishing there was a little less info. In fact, I often wanted more. There was a story of a dentist in a courtroom that was absolutely wild and worth the entire listen to this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and RB Media for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. The narration to this was absolutely great.