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Everyone against Us: Public Defenders and the Making of American Justice
A former public defender testifies to the vivid human suffering at the heart of America’s criminal justice system.
As a public defender, Allen Goodman faced cross-examination from family and friends every How could he work to help criminals? How could he live with himself? Presumed guilty by association, Goodman quickly learned that people didn’t really want an answer; they wanted a justification, perhaps even an apology. Ever the idealist, Goodman answered Everyone deserves justice.
Everyone against Us is Goodman’s testimony of his life as a public defender. In it, he documents his efforts to defend clients, both guilty and innocent, against routine police abuse, prosecutorial misconduct, and unjust sentencing. To work in criminal justice, Goodman shows, is to confront and combat vivid human suffering, of both victims and perpetrators. From sex trafficking, murder, and abuse to false conviction, torture, and systemic racism, Goodman describes the daily experiences that both rattled his worldview and motivated him to work ever harder. Part memoir, part exposé, Everyone against Us is the moving story of an embattled civil servant who staves off the worst abuses of the criminal justice system, at great personal cost.
As a public defender, Allen Goodman faced cross-examination from family and friends every How could he work to help criminals? How could he live with himself? Presumed guilty by association, Goodman quickly learned that people didn’t really want an answer; they wanted a justification, perhaps even an apology. Ever the idealist, Goodman answered Everyone deserves justice.
Everyone against Us is Goodman’s testimony of his life as a public defender. In it, he documents his efforts to defend clients, both guilty and innocent, against routine police abuse, prosecutorial misconduct, and unjust sentencing. To work in criminal justice, Goodman shows, is to confront and combat vivid human suffering, of both victims and perpetrators. From sex trafficking, murder, and abuse to false conviction, torture, and systemic racism, Goodman describes the daily experiences that both rattled his worldview and motivated him to work ever harder. Part memoir, part exposé, Everyone against Us is the moving story of an embattled civil servant who staves off the worst abuses of the criminal justice system, at great personal cost.
280 pages, Hardcover
Published April 24, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 1, 2023
A harrowing read, thoughtfully and beautifully written. A necessary perspective on the American criminal legal system.
May 14, 2025
3.5 stars.
Wasn't a fan of the domestic violence chapter (let's oversimplify why complainants may not want to continue with the prosecution, why police have mandatory charge policies, and call a lot of complainants narcissistic liars) or the explanation of why an 18 year old who impregnated a 12 year old was actually in the right because she said she was 16 and looked ~developed~. Also some casual denigration of a jail guard for being fat?
Wasn't a fan of the domestic violence chapter (let's oversimplify why complainants may not want to continue with the prosecution, why police have mandatory charge policies, and call a lot of complainants narcissistic liars) or the explanation of why an 18 year old who impregnated a 12 year old was actually in the right because she said she was 16 and looked ~developed~. Also some casual denigration of a jail guard for being fat?
July 3, 2023
The author illustrates how the biblical doctrine of total depravity is evident in the justice/legal system in our nation, especially in Chicago. The system is corrupt because we, as men and women, are in rebellion against God.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews