The Evidence Is Faulty: Miscarriages of Justice in Sierra Leone (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798241203502)

Justice stands or falls on the quality of evidence.
When evidence is faulty, justice itself becomes an illusion.

The Evidence Is Faulty is a powerful and timely examination of how unreliable evidence undermines criminal justice and leads to wrongful arrests, prolonged detention, and wrongful convictions-particularly within Sierra Leone's legal system. Drawing on legal principles, anonymized real-world case patterns, constitutional safeguards, and international comparisons, this book exposes the systemic pathways through which miscarriages of justice occur.

From coerced confessions and unreliable eyewitness testimony to weak forensic practices and institutional pressure to secure convictions, the book demonstrates that miscarriages of justice are not rare accidents. They are predictable outcomes of evidentiary failure, weak oversight, and inconsistent enforcement of the law.

Grounded in Sierra Leone's constitutional and statutory framework and informed by global experience from Africa, Europe, and North America, this work shows that the problem is not the absence of legal protections, but the gap between law and practice. It argues that justice systems earn legitimacy not by claiming infallibility, but by confronting error, enforcing safeguards, and committing to reform.

Written for judges, lawyers, law-enforcement officers, policymakers, students, civil society actors, and all who believe that justice must be anchored in truth, The Evidence Is Faulty is both a critique and a call to action. It challenges complacency, affirms human dignity, and offers practical pathways toward a justice system that protects the innocent, holds the guilty accountable, and restores public trust in the rule of law.