Alexandra Shapiro
Former federal prosecutor and one of the leading appellate lawyers in the United States, who has argued before the Supreme Court, clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and won numerous appeals resulting in exonerations of wrongfully convicted defendants.
Despite decades inside the legal system, this project emerged from a moment where the system failed someone she believed to be innocent, and she failed to fix it through the courts.
Modern Author Program
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“This case keeps me up at night, and I really wanted to tell that story.”
— Alexandra Shapiro
What Changed?
The book became a second courtroom.
A case too complex and constrained for nonfiction was transformed into a novel that preserved truth while shedding procedural barriers. Fiction allowed Shapiro to expose how the presumption of innocence erodes in practice, even for defendants with resources, influence, and capable counsel.
