Manifesting Justice: Wrongly Convicted Women Reclaim Their Rights

Arizona University law professor Beety spotlights the case of her former client Leigh Stubbs in this shocking study of how the criminal justice system discriminates against “poor people of color and people with non-mainstream identities such as genderqueer and transgender individuals.” Arrested in March 2000 after she sought help for a female friend who had overdosed on OxyContin, Stubbs was convicted of sexual assault and illegal drug possession and sentenced to 44 years in prison. As Beety methodically explains, the prosecution built their case on faulty forensic evidence, false testimony, and insinuations that Stubbs, a lesbian, was a predatory sexual deviant. The Mississippi Innocence Project took on the case and Beety launched a campaign for a new trial, despite the long odds facing a convicted defendant. From habeas corpus laws rife with nearly impossible timing restrictions to federal appeals courts that automatically defer to state court decisions, Beety explains how the justice system “bends, sometimes inordinately, to uphold a conviction.” Her solutions include legislation to allow defendants to “challenge charges, convictions and sentences based on racially disparate impact” and rewards for prosecutors who acknowledge wrongful convictions, rather than seeking “a conviction for conviction’s sake.” Enriched by Beety’s lucid case studies and vivid profiles of Stubbs and other clients, this is an invigorating and eye-opening call to action. (June)