Adam Benforado

It is rare for me that a non-fiction book has such a loose, unfocused, banal ending that it almost overwhelms everything good that came before, and there is plenty of good in this book. The reader is immediately caught up in what the author has to say with an extremely compelling true story at the beginning. The author then proceeds to review every major aspect of the American criminal justice system, showing quite clearly why each part is lacking in some very critical ways. The victims, detectives, suspects, attorneys, juries, eyewitnesses, experts, and judges, all get put on display for their faults. Moreover, the general public and the prisoners themselves get their turn, too. Watch a few TV shows and many of these faults will be familiar, though maybe not as familiar to the average reader as the statistics the author provides show they should be. In fact, read a lot about black justice in America, and nothing in this book should be a surprise. Of course, the statistics on racial disparities are abundant and easily available to anyone even vaguely interested. To be fair, the author does try to offer some solutions to the problems he points out, but they are shallow in their details and ignore some very obvious political realities. Okay, there are a couple very intriguing ideas that stand on their own. Ultimately, he offers that America is "limited only by our imagination and our own stubborn adherence to the way things have 'always' been done"...and by the new Federal government. But then, the author could hardly have guessed his work would become so worthless so quickly.… (mehr)