A retired Metropolitan Police Department fingerprint examiner has penned a unique book in which he claims the media, advocates and legal strategists can distort public perceptions — and sometimes outcomes — in high-profile criminal cases.
Steven Scarborough’s book, “The Innocence Machine: The Innocence System Gone Haywire,” takes an in-depth look at multiple controversial national criminal cases. Scarborough spent nearly 30 years working as a fingerprint examiner and crime scene investigator for Metro.
Scarborough called the work “an investigative, kind of true-crime look at the innocence movement and how it has infiltrated the justice system.”
In one chapter, Scarborough takes dives into the Scott Peterson case. Peterson was convicted of killing his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn child in California in 2024 and sentenced to death.
Recently, multiple media accounts and advocates for Peterson have put forth the contention that Peterson is innocent. One of the theories presented is that Laci Peterson was killed after interrupting a residential burglary. Scarborough rejects claims of innocence for Peterson in his book, contending evidence lodged against Scott Peterson in the case is overwhelming.
“The mental contortion necessary to accept the alternative scenarios is breathtaking,” Scarborough writes, adding the “required mental gymnastics” to come up with a situation where Scott Peterson didn’t commit the crime “is beyond comprehension.”
Another chapter in the book is devoted to examining the complex cases of Anthony Porter and Alstory Simon in Chicago. Their cases were the subject of the 2014 true crime documentary “A Murder in the Park.”
Porter was convicted of killing two people in Chicago and sentenced to death. A journalism professor and students from what was then Northwestern University’s Medill Innocence Project, along with others, successfully petitioned for his release. Simon was put forth as a suspect and he was later convicted of the crimes and sentenced to 37 years in prison.
Simon’s conviction, however, was later vacated by authorities after serious questions were raised about the Medill Innocence Project’s work. Northwestern subsequently reached a confidential legal settlement in a lawsuit filed by Simon, according to CBS News Chicago.
“This case highlights what can happen when the quest to find an innocent person becomes all-consuming, causing those involved to become blind to other aspects,” Scarborough wrote in his book.
Other segments in the book examine the prominent homicide cases of Alex Murdaugh, Leonard Peltier, Luigi Mangione and others.
Scarborough acknowledged that some of the views he espouses in the book might be considered controversial. He also emphasized he was not trying to minimize the critically important work of defense attorneys in defending clients, and he noted in the book multiple examples of how work by the national Innocence Project has led to freeing multiple people wrongly convicted.
His primary message in the book, he said, is for people to simply focus on the facts.
“It is the evidence that is really important,” he said. “When examining these cases the evidence is paramount, and we must give the same attention to the evidence when convicting someone as well as when we exonerate someone.”
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com.
