The Injustice System: A Murder in Miami and a Trial Gone Wrong
Kris Maharaj spent more than 20 years on death row, convicted of murdering his ex–business partner, bankrupt and deserted by everyone but his wife. Smith, who had spent 25 years fighting death-penalty cases, took up Maharaj’s cause and plunged into an investigation involving the murky world of international drug trafficking and money laundering. Smith’s investigation took him from the Caribbean to Miami and Washington, D.C., as he examined his client, a British-educated Trinidadian businessman who’d lived in Miami, and the business deal that landed Maharaj in prison despite a strong alibi. His investigation uncovered improper conduct by police, prosecutors, and the judge, giving Smith the basis for critically analyzing the frailties of the justice system. He shines a harsh light on the conventional belief that the innocent rarely go as far as trial and are seldom convicted, and the immunity of prosecutors from accusations of wrongdoing, including withholding evidence that could prove defendants innocent. Smith packages this revealing analysis of the broader justice system in a true-life legal thriller about one particularly egregious case. --Vanessa Bush