Acknowledgments

This book has its origins in conversations that I had with Rashmi Dyal Chand, my friend and colleague at Northeastern University School of Law. Several years ago, in her role as research director for our faculty, Rashmi encouraged me to organize a conference on a topic related to my scholarship. With gentle prodding from Rashmi, my idea for the topic took shape, and the concept of turning the conference papers into a book emerged. For that reason, among others, I am in Rashmi’s debt. My dean, Jeremy Paul, deserves credit too. I feel fortunate to have a dean who is committed to research and willing to subsidize it even in an era of unrelenting pressures on legal education.

Needless to say, this book would not exist without the sterling chapters provided by the contributors to this volume, almost all of whom are long-standing friends and comrades in the effort to free the innocent. Words are inadequate to express my appreciation.

I am also grateful to John Berger of Cambridge University Press for shepherding the book proposal through the selection process and for his sage editorial advice as it wended its way toward publication. John and I shared many cups of coffee in the “other” Cambridge (Massachusetts), and those conversations, coupled with the caffeine, helped fuel this book on the road to completion. Debbie Gershenowitz of Cambridge University Press introduced me to John, an act of kindness that meant the world to me.

Finally, my wonderful family encouraged me to pursue this project and endured my grumblings about the effort involved in finishing it. So, truly, thank you Sharissa, Mili, and Clementine. Thanks as well to my parents Howard and Mameve Medwed, my brother Jono Medwed, his wife Marnie Davidoff, their children Mirabelle and Gabriel.