Updates on the Alma Powell Branch Library can be found on kpl.gov/pow

Book

1 of 1 Copy Available

  • CENTRAL: Second Floor
Log In to Place HoldAdd Author AlertMore Details

American injustice : inside stories from the underbelly of the criminal justice system

Call Number

  • 345.05 R9173 (CEN)

Browse similar titles by call number

Edition

First edition.

Publication Information

New York : Custom House, [2022]

Physical Description

viii, 355 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Summary

"From the fearless defense attorney and civil rights lawyer who rose to fame with Netflix's The Staircase comes an essential examination of how power is abused within America's criminal justice system. In the past thirty years alone, more than 2,800 innocent American prisoners--their combined sentences surpassing 25,000 years--have been exonerated and freed after being condemned for crimes they did not commit. Terrifyingly, this number represents only a fraction of the actual number of persons wrongfully accused and convicted over the same period. Renowned criminal defense and civil rights attorney David Rudolf has spent decades defending the wrongfully accused. In American Injustice, he draws from his years of experience in the American criminal legal system to shed light on the misconduct that exists at all levels of law enforcement and the tragic consequences that follow in its wake. Tracing these themes through the lens of some of his most important cases--including new details from the Michael Peterson trial made famous in The Staircase--Rudolf takes the reader inside crime scenes to examine forensic evidence left by perpetrators; revisits unsolved murders to detail how and why the true culprits were never prosecuted; reveals how confirmation bias leads police and prosecutors to employ tactics that make wrongful arrests and prosecutions more likely; and exposes how poverty and racism fundamentally distort the system. In American Injustice, Rudolf gives a voice to those who have been the victim of wrongful accusations and shows in the starkest terms the human impact of legal wrongdoing. Effortlessly blending gripping true crime reporting and searing observations on civil rights in America, American Injustice takes readers behind the scenes of a justice system in desperate need of reform."--

Notes

Includes index.

Contents

  • Defending the rule of law
  • How can you represent "those people"?
  • Due process in the criminal justice system
  • Southern Justice
  • White justice
  • Speedy justice
  • The front lines
  • Terrorists or freedom fighters?
  • Shades of gray
  • Law enforcement or criminals?
  • The coverup
  • The most powerful person in the system
  • Caught in the cross fire
  • The attack on condoms and the First Amendment
  • Adam & Eve fight back
  • A quiet death by lethal injection
  • Set up to be guilty : suggestive false identifications
  • Justice for sale : purchasing false testimony
  • Hiding the truth : concealing exculpatory evidence
  • The usual suspect
  • The obvious suspect
  • A thousand to one
  • Justice delayed
  • Coercing false confessions and guilty pleas
  • Fabricating confessions
  • Abusing the power of science
  • Laboratory scandals
  • Beyond the limits of science
  • I shall be released
  • Who killed Shadow Holloman?
  • Epilogue : the roots of resistance.

Share: Facebook Twitter