You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You're Innocent
Ratings2
Average rating4.5
15
Ratings2
Average rating4.5
Surviving prison as an innocent person is a surreal nightmare no one wants to think about. But it can happen to you. Justin Brooks has spent his career freeing innocent people from prison. With You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You're Innocent, he offers up-close accounts of the cases he has fought, embedding them within a larger landscape of innocence claims and robust research on what we know about the causes of wrongful convictions. Putting readers at the defense table, this book forces us to consider how any of us might be swept up in the system, whether we hired a bad lawyer, bear a slight resemblance to someone else in the world, or are not good with awkward silence. The stories of Brooks's cases and clients paint the picture of a broken justice system, one where innocence is no protection from incarceration or even the death penalty. Simultaneously relatable and disturbing, You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You're Innocent is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand how injustice is served by our system.
Reviews with the most likes.
Should be turned into a documentary series and shown to members of the jury pools assembled in every court house in America before any criminal trial. Documents yet again that the criminal justice system cares little for truth or else it would concentrate on adopting systems to recognize and reduce errors, instead of doubling down on them. Given that this book comes decades after the Innocence Movement has gotten underway and prosecutors and judges (the only people who are immune from any accountability for their failings in the entire system) have not improved an iota on average, it is time to start figuring out ways to build accountability into the system, which starts with abolishing judicial and prosecutorial immunity to suits for violations of civil rights. The bar can be set high, but there needs to be a way for society to hold these actors accountable when their negligence or their unchecked and unconstrained biases and belief in their own righteousness (and refusal to recognize their own blind spots) results in wrongful convictions that result in felony sentences. America has gone berserk in trying to use the prison system as a replacement for offshored jobs, and it’s time that we got this system under control. We need the risks of errors in the criminal justice system to be recognized and addresses as seriously as we would systematic errors in jet airplanes or nuclear power plants —- and that will only start when the lead actors in the drama (prosecutors and judges — who are often of one mind, since so many judges are former prosecutors who have never represented a single defendant) are themselves exposed to the consequences of error. These powerful actors act every day as if the system is foolproof — well, then they don’t need immunity from liability and accountability for problems in the system.
