NCJ Number
244686
Date Published
2009
Length
312 pages
Annotation
This book, Ordinary Injustice: How America Holds Court, explores the failures of the U.S. legal system.
Abstract
This book explores the failures of the U.S. legal system, especially at the State court level. As noted by the author, the U.S. criminal justice system is an adversarial one. It is a contest between two parties - the prosecution who represents the state and the defense attorney who represents the defendant. In this type of a system, a defendant is guaranteed certain rights in order to ensure that a fair process will produce a just outcome at trial. This book examines what happens when this system breaks down by looking at four cases in which different players in the adversarial system have acted in ways that prevent a fair process and a just outcome. The four cases examined in the book occur in Greene County, Georgia; Troy, New York; Quitman County, Mississippi; and Chicago, Illinois. The key players examined in the four cases were a court-appointed lawyer who failed to properly represent his clients, a State court judge who failed to uphold the law, the failure of a district attorney to bring cases to trial, and the wrongful prosecution and conviction of two defendants by a State's attorney. Notes and index