tragic stories highlighting flaws in some cases
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2024 | Rating: 3/5 | Best Sellers in Books
the real theme of this book is highlighting the work of citadel ministries which mr mccloskey heads it is like the innocent project helping wrongfully convicted inmates get the evidence and legal expertise needed to get a reversalthese stories do a good job of describing how prosecutions can go wrong when incompetent or biased or lazy police prosecutors and judges are in charge but i didnt like that they use these cases to accuse the whole system of corruption in need of reform the problem is the people not the process the police prosecutors and judges are a reflection of their communities after all the police chiefs sheriffs prosecutors and judges are all elected or appointed by elected officials how else should we pick themwhy were these specific cases chosen one case involves racism unfortunately that is not surprising that officials in rural texas would be biased and ready to charge and convict someone because he is black for years it was difficult for a black defendant to get a fair trial in many parts of the nation and probably still is others involved police and prosecutors suffering from severe cases of tunnel vision for whatever reason they get mentally locked into prosecuting one suspect and cant or will not consider other evidencethe system is designed to avoid errors and is criticized as much for being too lax erroneous acquittals often based on technicalities are as outrageous as framed convictions of innocent people to help ensure justice convictions must pass at least five levels of investigation and review first is police investigate then a prosecutor has to review the evidence and decide whether to charge a crime then a prosecutor must convince a judge or grand jury in a preliminary hearing that there is enough evidence to show probable cause that a crime was committed by the defendant then a full trial must convince a judge or jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed a crime then appellate courts have to review the trial record to determine that it was conducted appropriately a lawyer must be appointed to represent any defendant that wants one suspects can refuse to talk and be interrogated and testify and no negative inference can be drawn from that that goes further than just about any other nation to slant the process in favor of innocence and is often criticized as too favorable to suspects while ignoring the rights of victimsthe stories in the book show how police and prosecutors are not necessarily looking for the truth when they investigate they are considering whether there is enough evidence to convince a judge or jury that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt the police often dont do an exhaustive search of every possible defendant they dont have the resources to do that in many cases even if they wanted to the problems happened in these ten cases when the police prosecutors and judges were lazy or didnt want to consider the possibility they were wrong that is when they ignore other possibilities and hide exculpatory evidence even though they are required by the constitution to divulge all evidence to the defense the line between focusing their efforts and getting tunnel vision can be thin and some police and prosecutors are just not diligent reasonable and free of bias that is the problem this book describesthe question this book does not address let alone answer is what more can be done about bad people in the system and still have an effective way to identify and prosecute crimes it is certainly important to understand where problems occur which these cases do well but it is equally important to recognize the importance of having a criminal justice system to deal with crimes and the efforts to ensure fairness that is entirely missing in this book in reality most cases are handled fairly the backlash to decriminalization movements happening in many cities now highlights the publics intolerance for crimes and criminalsthe book at times claims to be an indictment of the whole system and a need for systemic reform that is unfair and tunnel vision in itself no other nation has gone as far as we have to avoid convicting innocent people and that is criticized as much or more than wrong convictions the book would be much better if it presented these cases to explain how investigations involve evaluating evidence rather than seeking pure truth and mistakes can be made by lazy and biased officials and even by diligent police and prosecutors the system is not perfect but perfection is impossible this book would be much better if it said thatim a lawyer but i dont do criminal cases still i remember an old maxim from law school that hard cases make bad law these are all hard cases that need to be put into perspective relative to the whole system