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Title details for The Sing Sing Files by Dan Slepian - Available

The Sing Sing Files

One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice

by Dan Slepian
Dan Slepian
Audiobook
1 of 4 copies available
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1 of 4 copies available

"Bristling with urgency, empathy, and determination...this is investigative journalism at its best and most necessary."—AudioFile

The author's podcast, Letters from Sing Sing, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
This program is read by the author and features sound design and original archival sound recordings from Sing Sing maximum-security prison, including letters written to the author. It also includes commentary from formerly incarcerated men.

An NBC Dateline producer's cinematic account of his two-decade journey navigating the broken criminal justice system to help free six innocent men
In 2002, Dan Slepian, a veteran producer for NBC's Dateline, received a tip from a Bronx homicide detective that two men were serving twenty-five years to life in prison for a 1990 murder they did not commit.
Haunted by what the detective had told him, Slepian began an investigation of the case that eventually resulted in freedom for the two men and launched Slepian on a two-decade personal and professional journey into a deeply flawed justice system fiercely resistant to rectifying—or even acknowledging—its mistakes and their consequences.
The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice is Slepian's account of challenging that system. The story follows Slepian on years of prison visits, court hearings, and street reporting that led to a series of powerful Dateline episodes and eventually to freedom for four other men and to an especially deep and lasting friendship with one of them, Jon-Adrian "JJ" Velazquez. From his cell in Sing Sing, JJ aided Slepian in his investigations until his own release in 2021 after decades in prison.
Like Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy, The Sing Sing Files is a deeply personal account of wrongful imprisonment and the flaws in our justice system, and a powerful argument for reckoning and accountability. Slepian's extraordinary book, at once painful and full of hope, shines a light on an injustice whose impact the nation has only begun to confront.
A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    September 10, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781250366535
      • File size: 200045 KB
      • Duration: 06:56:45

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 15, 2024
      Dateline producer Slepian debuts with a riveting account of his crusade to free six wrongfully convicted men from New York State’s Sing Sing prison. The narrative begins with the 1990 killing of New York City bouncer Markus Peterson, who was shot while working the door at a nightclub. David Lemus and Olmedo Hidalgo, who had prior convictions for riding in a stolen car and carrying an unlicensed gun, respectively, were arrested and sentenced to 25 to life for the crime, despite their persuasive alibis. While shadowing two NYPD detectives for Dateline in 2002, Slepian learned that one firmly believed Lemus and Hidalgo were innocent. That led Slepian to visit Sing Sing and interview both men, which persuaded him of their innocence. Through those interviews, he also learned of several other cases of sketchy convictions at Sing Sing, including those of J.J. Velazquez, a Latino man who was convicted of murdering a former cop based on witness testimony that the killers were Black, and Eric Glisson, who spent 17 years at Sing Sing for killing a cab driver before his release in 2012. With Slepian’s help, each man walked free by 2021, and most received multimillion-dollar settlements. Slepian tells his subects’ stories with rigor and compassion, and persuasively argues that America’s justice system is “designed to easily imprison the innocent” in the name of closing cases quickly. This is difficult to shake. Agent: Larry Weissman, Larry Weissman Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      When NBC "Dateline" reporter and producer Dan Slepian stumbled upon evidence that a number of men serving lengthy terms in the New York State prison system may have been innocent, he couldn't let it go. In a voice bristling with urgency, empathy, and determination, Slepian recounts how false identification, racial profiling, prosecutorial misconduct, incentivized witnesses, and just being in the wrong place at the wrong time can get an innocent citizen convicted of murder and sent to prison for life. A second chance at real justice takes faith, years of court hearings, and reams of paperwork--but for six men Slepian's advocacy for the truth was well worth it. They're finally free. Enhanced with archival recordings, this is investigative journalism at its best and most necessary. B.P. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from December 6, 2024

      When Dateline producer Slepian was approached by a prisoner's mother, who begged him to investigate her son's case, he was reluctant. He was already assisting two other individuals at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and wondered what the odds were of encountering another wrongfully convicted person. Little did the journalist know that over the next two decades, he would visit Jon-Adrian "JJ" Velazquez over 200 times and form a lasting friendship. Velazquez not only advocated for his own innocence and retrial but also unselfishly asked Slepian to aid others who were falsely imprisoned. Slepian makes a stunning debut that exhibits his storytelling expertise, gained through his work on The Phil Donahue Show and Dateline. The text is mainly narrated by the author, although Velazquez's letters are presented in his own voice, full of drive and, at times, desperation. This audio offers a host of enhancements, with dramatic music, sirens, slamming prison doors, recorded police interviews, the haunting wail of a mother as her son is released from prison, and more. VERDICT This audio will appeal to listeners seeking an immersive, impassioned nonfiction work about the miscarriages of justice and one man's mission to help. Recommended for fans of Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey.--Lauren Hackert

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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