In 2004, I joined a group of lawyers representing a man named Stephan Cowans in civil rights litigation against the City of Boston and the Boston Police Department. Stephan had been convicted in 1997 of the shooting and attempted murder of a Boston Police officer. He spent nearly seven years in prison.

In 2004, the New England Innocence Project used DNA evidence to demonstrate that Stephan had been wrongly convicted. A subsequent investigation by the police department itself determined that the fingerprint evidence used to convict Stephan had been falsified. Independent fingerprint experts hired by the City concluded that the fact that Stephan’s fingerprints did not match those found on the gun used in the shooting was known by one or more individuals in the Police Department.

In 2006, Stephan reached a settlement with the City of Boston and the Boston Police Department. The case continues with respect to certain individual officers involved in the identification process. All money earned by my Firm, Goodwin Procter, LLP, as a result of the representation of Stephan Cowans in his civil rights case have been donated to the New England Innocence Project.

Much of what I learned throughout the process of representing Stephan with respect to the science of identification and misidentification in the criminal justice system found its way into INNOCENCE, my third book. The novel reprises the characters of Scott Finn and Tom Koslowski (from DARK HARBOR) and follows them through twists and turns as they represent a man convicted fifteen years earlier in the shooting of a Boston Police Officer.

Because of the source from which I drew much of the inspiration for this novel, it is special to me. I am proud of all three novels I have written so far, just as anyone who finds the perseverance to complete any novel—whether it is ever published or not—deserves to be proud. This one, though, carries some additional meaning. If you have the opportunity to read it, I hope you enjoy it.

With life as a pawn in a prestigious Boston law firm behind him, Scott Finn has set course through the more colorful back alleys and bedrooms of the legal world as a solo practitioner who dabbles in civil litigation, divorce law, and criminal defense. But his new environment and his nose for justice and fair play land him a case that could end up taking his life.

A policewoman is left for dead in an alley, but survives and points the finger at an El Salvadoran immigrant with ties to one of South America's most dangerous and notorious gangs. There's just one problem: the evidence suggests the wrong man's been fingered. Finn, along with the maverick detective and stubborn ally Tom Kozlowski, must now navigate through this explosive case to save an innocent man's life and to learn why decorated officers might be willing to risk their careers and even their lives by lying about the crime. But with time running out, it is Finn and Kozlowski whose lives hang in the balance as they search for the thin line between guilt and innocence.