Mean justice
Subtitle: a town's terror, a prosecutor's power, a betrayal of innocence
By: Edward Humes.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 491
Subjects: Dunn, Patrick O'Dale -- Trials, litigation, etc; Criminal justice, Administration of -- California -- Kern County; Prosecution -- California -- Kern County; Judicial error -- California -- Kern County; Trials (Murder) -- California -- Kern County
Description: "In Mean Justice, journalist Edward Humes embarks on a chilling journey to the dark side of the justice system - the powerful true story of one man's battle to prove his innocence.

It is a story both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, for Humes shows how the individual injustice done to one man is part of a disturbing national trend, in which innocence becomes the unintended casualty of the war on crime, and the immense new powers of prosecutors - from Main Street to Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue - are dangerously unchecked.".

"Humes tells how retired high-school principal Pat Dunn was prosecuted for killing his wife to inherit her millions. Mean Justice reveals how Dunn's case was tainted by hidden witnesses, concealed evidence and behind-the-scenes lobbying by powerful politicians. More horrifying still, there were many such cases in this All-American town, where a well-meaning desire for public safety led to something dark and terrible and unjust.

Finally, Humes asks whether the mean justice dispensed in Bakersfield, California, may be fast becoming the norm for the rest of the country, where, in our zeal for order, we are increasingly forgiving prosecutorial misconduct."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 393-448).