Guilty: The Collapse of Criminal Justice

by Harold J. Rothwax

Drawing on a career's worth of experience and using the O.J. Simpson trial as a prime example, a well-respected state supreme court judge makes the case for 10 major reforms of the criminal justice system, including the end of unanimous jury verdicts; the elimination of the Miranda rulings; and a new interpretation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.

Genres: Nonfiction, Crime, Law

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 23, 1996

Reviews

[Josh Muhlenkamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, written now nearly 20 years ago by an NYC judge, explains issues that still exist in our criminal justice system, issues that prevent the system from actually fulfilling its purpose of doing justice.

It all starts with the realization that modern-day criminal law and criminal procedural law are not designed to get to the truth of a charge - did a certain person commit a certain crime? Instead, so much of our criminal justice system is designed to frustrate that purpose.

Extra-constitutional exclusionary rules relating to suppression of voluntary statements, or searches conducted pursuant to opaque and shifting rules make it more difficult for police officers to investigate crime. Speedy trial statutes (not the constitutional right to a speedy trial) that fail to take into account the particular requirements of a certain case make it more difficult to obtain convictions, and burden trial courts with unnecessary litigation about whether the statutes have been violated, even in the absence of any harm to a defendant. The lack of ethical restraints on defense attorneys in the courtroom, allowing them to deliberately mislead or obfuscate matters for a jury, makes the search for truth more difficult, and often defeats it completely. Discovery rules that require prosecutors to give their entire case to defendants without any reciprocation permit witness tampering and encourage perjury, by giving defendants a chance to craft their stories after seeing the version of events that is alleged by the prosecution. And while a defendant is rightly not required to testify against themselves, it is wholly illogical that a juror wouldn't be able to draw an inference from a refusal or inability of a defendant to answer a point that seems to demonstrate their guilt. Our jury system encourages defendants, who are looking to mislead the finders of fact as to the truth, to seek out and impanel those jurors who are often least qualified to make judgments on the nature of the evidence presented to them. Not only that, but the evidence presented to the jury is often subject to restrictions that exist for the sole reason of preventing the jury from learning the truth. Finally, undue formalism and a lack of proportionality in appellate (and Supreme Court) decisions often result in absurd and dangerous outcomes.

Unfortunately, these trends are not disappearing. They are getting worse. It continues to get harder and harder for police and prosecutors to do their jobs of protecting communities from dangerous and violent criminals. Truth is no longer the goal of the criminal justice system. Truth is no longer a good thing to be sought after. This should give all thinking people pause.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn. His point is that the criminal justice system is too lax, that Miranda needs to be repealed, and seems to be arguing that the adversary system should be scrapped in favour of a "strong judge" constitutional system. The book is full of examples of times when obvious criminals have gotten off on technicalities. There's a flip side to this too though - a flip side where people of little to no means are spuriously detained and charged through things like the "dropsy" method and don't have the means to defend themselves. I feel like I'd rather err on the side of being too lax than what Rothwax is proposing. Interesting read though.

[Mark Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greatly informative about how our justice system works and does not.

[Loraine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm stalled. It's hard to continue reading once an author completely contradicts themselves, then practicality declares themselves an elitist. He has some good points about the idiocy of technicalities being used to free convicted murderers and other serious offenders, but apparently he believes first time juvenile offenders fall into the same category, and no offender deserves consideration as a potentially intelligent human being. There are better books I should be reading.

[Cws]

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[Jose · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting illumination on the legal system..shows how it works, but also how it fails to keep the "right" criminals locked up.

[Maxo Marc]

A very insightful look into the current state of the American criminal justice system.