The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist

“A haunting true‑crime tale of systemic incompetence and racism...Balko and Carrington have written a cry for help.”—New York Times

“A superb work of investigative reporting...Balko and Carrington combine expertise, industry and outrage into a searing narrative.”—Wall Street Journal

“A horrifying exposé of how a few individuals can infect an entire state's criminal justice system.”—Kirkus (Starred)

“A clear and shocking portrait of the structural failings of the U.S. criminal justice system... This eminently readable book builds a hard‑to‑ignore case for comprehensive criminal justice reform.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred)

“Through the intensive scrutiny of how the men were speedily tried, convicted, and then released after years in prison, the authors uncover an unholy alliance of racist cops and prosecutors with questionable death investigations and misapplied forensics. This work should spark both admiration and outrage‑and, one hopes, reform.”—Booklist

“Of all the tragedy documented in this book, surely the most pernicious is the unacknowledged progression of discriminatory policies in the American criminal justice system. The black men at the story's center were not snatched out of a Mississippi jail and lynched. They were falsely imprisoned. They were haunted by state efforts to execute them for three decades. This is a powerful and instructive story, masterfully told by Balko and Carrington.”—Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award winning author of Stamped from the Beginning

“The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist paints a devastating picture of Mississippi’s ongoing systemic abuse of junk evidence by medical examiners and highlights the myriad ways the current legal and political systems reward certain and speedy convictions. This carefully constructed and highly‑readable account also reveals the ways in which catastrophic and almost comic expert errors can lead to hasty conclusions, ruined lives, and may take years to correct, if they are corrected at all.”—Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Editor, Slate

“If, like most Americans, you think that our legal system protects innocent people from being falsely convicted, be prepared to have your faith shattered. In horrifying detail, Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington show how structural racism, junk science, overzealous prosecutors, compliant judges, and a bloodthirsty press conspired to wreck lives and convict the innocent. Grounded in Mississippi courtrooms, but with national implications, this book will leave you outraged and hungry for change.”—James Forman, Jr, author of Locking Up Our Own