American Injustice by David Rudolf

 

David Rudolf started his law career as a public defender in New York.  After several years there he moved to North Carolina where he has lived his life and made a name for himself as the defense attorney you want if you are innocent and being charged with a crime.  In this book he exposes the errors of the justice system and how it is stacked against those being charged with a crime.

Using real cases, he exposes the systemic problems.  Many defendants agree to serve less time for a crime they didn't commit rather than face a jury and possibly serve much more time.  Rudolf states that fewer and fewer cases are actually going before a jury and most are adjudicated by a deal before trial.  Of those going to trial, there are many pitfalls facing the defendant.

One issue is forced confessions.  Most people say they would never confess to something they haven't done, but after hours of interrogation, lies from those in charge and horrible predictions of what will happen without a confession, many do confess.  The most striking case of this would be the Central Park jogger case where five young men confessed to the rape of a victim they had nothing to do with.  Another issue is confirmation bias where a police officer decides he knows who committed a crime and ignores any evidence to the contrary.  Rudolf represented a doctor who came home to find his wife horribly murdered.  The police decided he must have done it although there were witnesses to his whereabouts from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 that night as he rotated between three hospitals.  There was plenty of evidence pointing to a more likely candidate but once the police found out the doctor had been having an affair, all other evidence was ignored.

Another issue is forensic prejudice.  Although such evidence should be scientifically based, the forensic examiners work every day with the police.  There is a tendency to shade the evidence to help the police make a case.  The most famous example readers will have heard of is the case of Michael Peterson where the medical examiner lied on the stand about his credentials and made statements of certainty that the victim was killed by blows to the head.  This case was made into the series The Staircase.  The medical examiner was later found to have lied on the stand and shaded evidence in multiple cases and lost his job.  Although Rudolf's cases were based in North Carolina, this is not just a one state problem but rather the cases he had access to.  

Those readers interested in our justice system will find this book interesting but come away with a sour taste in their mouths about the abuses of power rife in the system.  With the advent of DNA and its validity in finding both the innocent and guilty, there have been thousands of cases of people released from prison after being wrongfully convicted.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers.