Voice of Witness 
Surviving Justice 
America’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated

Surviving Justice: America’s Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated presents oral histories of thirteen people from all walks of life, who, through a combination of all-too-common factors-overzealous prosecutors, inept defense lawyers, coercive interrogation tactics, eyewitness misidentification-found themselves imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. The stories these exonerated men and women tell are spellbinding, heartbreaking, and ultimately inspiring.

About the author

Dave Eggers is the author of six previous books, including
Zeitoun and A Hologram for the King. He is the founder and editor of Mc Sweeney’s, an independent publishing house based in San Francisco that produces a quarterly journal (
Timothy Mc Sweeney’s Quarterly Concern), and a monthly magazine (
The Believer). In 2002, he co-founded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for youth. In 2004, Eggers co-founded the Voice of Witness book series with Dr. Lola Vollen.


Lola Vollen is a scholar, human rights activist, and co-founder of Voice of Witness. In addition to editing
Surviving Justice, she also edited Voice of Witness title
Voices from the Storm: The People of New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina and Its Aftermath.


Scott Turow is a writer and attorney. He is the author of ten best-selling works of fiction, including
Presumed Innocent, Innocent, and Identical. His works of non-fiction include
One L, and Ultimate Punishment, a reflection on the death penalty. His writing has been featured in
The New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Playboy and
The Atlantic. His books have won a number of literary awards, including the Heartland Prize in 2003 for
Reversible Errors, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award in 2004 for
Ultimate Punishment and
Time Magazine’s Best Work of Fiction, 1999 for
Personal Injuries.