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Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal
Noted Attorney and Seminary Graduate Matthew T. Martens Answers the Question: Does the Design and Operation of the American Criminal Justice System Reflect Christian Love of Neighbor?
In Luke 10:27, Jesus tells his followers that the whole law is encapsulated in the commands to love God and to love their neighbor as themselves. In Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal, Matthew T. Martens argues that love of neighbor must be the animating force for true reformation of the criminal justice system. We must ask, how does Scripture guide our love for both the criminally victimized and the criminally accused?
Using his 25-year experience as a federal prosecutor and defense attorney, Martens reveals how Scripture provides several guideposts (accuracy, due process, accountability, impartiality, and proportionality) for loving our neighbors as it relates to criminal and social justice. He then summarizes the history of America’s justice system and examines how it operates today. By better understanding how our current system operates and considering how love of neighbor relates to issues of crime and justice, we will be better equipped to seek true Christian reform of the justice system.
A Biblical Perspective on Criminal Justice:
- Offers a biblical framework for thinking about the concept of justice for both the victim and the perpetrator
- Examines the History of the American Criminal Justice System: Inspects racist uses of the criminal justice system in the United States, from the time of the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement
- Assesses the Criminal Justice System: Examines the operation of the American justice system today, including plea bargains, assistance of counsel, the death penalty, and more
- Foreword by Derwin L. Gray: Pastor of Transformation Church in Indian Land, South Carolina, and the author of How to Heal Our Racial Divide and Building a Multiethnic Church
In Luke 10:27, Jesus tells his followers that the whole law is encapsulated in the commands to love God and to love their neighbor as themselves. In Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal, Matthew T. Martens argues that love of neighbor must be the animating force for true reformation of the criminal justice system. We must ask, how does Scripture guide our love for both the criminally victimized and the criminally accused?
Using his 25-year experience as a federal prosecutor and defense attorney, Martens reveals how Scripture provides several guideposts (accuracy, due process, accountability, impartiality, and proportionality) for loving our neighbors as it relates to criminal and social justice. He then summarizes the history of America’s justice system and examines how it operates today. By better understanding how our current system operates and considering how love of neighbor relates to issues of crime and justice, we will be better equipped to seek true Christian reform of the justice system.
A Biblical Perspective on Criminal Justice:
- Offers a biblical framework for thinking about the concept of justice for both the victim and the perpetrator
- Examines the History of the American Criminal Justice System: Inspects racist uses of the criminal justice system in the United States, from the time of the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement
- Assesses the Criminal Justice System: Examines the operation of the American justice system today, including plea bargains, assistance of counsel, the death penalty, and more
- Foreword by Derwin L. Gray: Pastor of Transformation Church in Indian Land, South Carolina, and the author of How to Heal Our Racial Divide and Building a Multiethnic Church
400 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 23, 2023
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883 people want to read
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November 29, 2023
Drawing upon the author’s almost thirty years practicing law and his biblical and theological training, this is an important work that is informative, disturbing, convicting, challenging, and edifying. Martens wrote it to address two obstacles he believes stand in the way of substantive conversation about criminal justice among evangelical Christians: (1) a pervasive lack of understanding about how the American criminal justice system works and (2) a tendency to parrot political talking points rather than being informed by a comprehensive Christian ethic of criminal justice. I think he succeeds in offering valuable remediation on both points.
The book consists of two parts. In the first, Martens lays out a Christian ethic of criminal justice. Herein he explains the relationship between the gospel and social justice (by which he means “justice in the structuring of a society”). Subsequent chapters cover the obligation of neighbor love and how it pertains to victims, the accused, and the convicted, and what Martens calls the biblical pillars of criminal justice: accuracy, due process, accountability, impartiality, and proportionality.
The second part of the book explores the history, features, and practices of the American criminal justice system, evaluating them in light of the biblical pillars explained in the Part One. Martens claims that though his is not a book about race, one cannot ignore the role race has and continues to play in America’s criminal justice system. He writes, “Race has been a recurring theme in the history of criminal justice in the United States, so I will not shy away from this hard topic to make the discussion more comfortable.”
Regardless of where one stands on the political spectrum, he or she is bound to find some cause of discomfort in the contents of this volume. Martens does a commendable job of avoiding partisanship. He writes with the clarity and precision one would expect from a seasoned attorney and with biblical and theological insight Christians should appreciate and hope to emulate. Martens is a pastor’s kid and a pastoral tone is evident throughout. A concluding chapter offers Christian readers suggestions about practical steps they can take to contribute to a more just criminal justice system.
Readers are sure to come away with a greater understanding of American criminal justice. Beyond that, however, and more importantly, Martens leads readers to seriously consider what the divine command to love our neighbors as ourselves really means. I highly recommend this book and hope many will take it up.
The book consists of two parts. In the first, Martens lays out a Christian ethic of criminal justice. Herein he explains the relationship between the gospel and social justice (by which he means “justice in the structuring of a society”). Subsequent chapters cover the obligation of neighbor love and how it pertains to victims, the accused, and the convicted, and what Martens calls the biblical pillars of criminal justice: accuracy, due process, accountability, impartiality, and proportionality.
The second part of the book explores the history, features, and practices of the American criminal justice system, evaluating them in light of the biblical pillars explained in the Part One. Martens claims that though his is not a book about race, one cannot ignore the role race has and continues to play in America’s criminal justice system. He writes, “Race has been a recurring theme in the history of criminal justice in the United States, so I will not shy away from this hard topic to make the discussion more comfortable.”
Regardless of where one stands on the political spectrum, he or she is bound to find some cause of discomfort in the contents of this volume. Martens does a commendable job of avoiding partisanship. He writes with the clarity and precision one would expect from a seasoned attorney and with biblical and theological insight Christians should appreciate and hope to emulate. Martens is a pastor’s kid and a pastoral tone is evident throughout. A concluding chapter offers Christian readers suggestions about practical steps they can take to contribute to a more just criminal justice system.
Readers are sure to come away with a greater understanding of American criminal justice. Beyond that, however, and more importantly, Martens leads readers to seriously consider what the divine command to love our neighbors as ourselves really means. I highly recommend this book and hope many will take it up.
October 27, 2023
This is an excellent and important book.
See my review in the November issue of Christianity Today.
Great interviews with the author on the United We Pray podcast as well.
See my review in the November issue of Christianity Today.
Great interviews with the author on the United We Pray podcast as well.
February 1, 2024
“How would we design the justice system if we did not know our lot in life and thus did not know whether we were more likely to be a crime victim or a criminal defendant?”
‘The American justice system is corrupt’ is a politically charged and unhelpful statement. But I’ve heard it like a broken record lately.
This book has done what nothing else has been able to do thus far: tell me specific ways the justice system is unfair, biased, or unjust.
Martens has both decades of law experience— as a federal prosecutor AND a criminal defense attorney— and a seminary degree. This puts him in a unique and extremely helpful position to help Christians (or non-believers for that matter) see the ways the justice system has failed (from firsthand experience in a courtroom) and help us think critically about how our criminal justice system functions in light of biblical justice.
Martens’s main thesis is that a justice system should be aligned with biblical justice in that it functions to love ALL neighbors— both the victims and the accused.
His writing is loving, fair, clear, and does not attempt to take sides on any recent politically charged and public case. I appreciated this because it increased my ability to trust his motive in writing in the book and the research he used to make his points.
He seems to have a very astute mind for the nation’s varying perspectives of the justice system and how conversations tend to go when talking about it— whether that’s in ignorance of what actually happens in the courtroom, popular crime and incarceration statistics, only looking at either the inputs or the outputs of the system, or just touting political talking points.
But none of this will accomplish much if we don’t understand “the design and operation of the features, procedures, actors, and laws that make up the system.”
The first part of the book shows us what the Bible says about justice and what God has ordained government’s role to be. Then it outlines five main pillars of biblical justice: accuracy, due process, impartiality, accountability, and proportionality.
“The core of biblical justice is accuracy, due process is the means to accuracy, impartiality protects accuracy, accountability punishes inaccuracy, and proportionality ensures accuracy about severity.”
He shows how the Bible requires sufficient evidence that shows what truly happened; that the process this happens through is designed to find truth and an opportunity for the accused to be heard; that verdicts are given out fairly across different races, genders, or social classes, not giving special treatment to ‘favored’ groups; that those in charge of rendering verdicts and moving the process along should not receive immunity if they fail to act morally and according to the law; and that the punishment fits and tells the truth about the severity of the crime.
The second part of the book takes those principles and then uses them to analyze various parts of our legal system such as: plea bargains, jury selection, judges, assistance of counsel, witnesses, exculpatory evidence, sentencing, and the death penalty.
Along the way Martens gives us the history of our legal system in general but also of various laws and procedures— why they were enacted and analyzes whether or not they are doing what they were intended to do.
Right up front he addresses the common objection to talking about criminal justice— that it distracts from the gospel.
The term ‘social justice’ can mean a lot of things right now (and I would highly recommend you read Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth to delve more into what it should mean), and often promotes its principles as higher than or equal to the gospel in many ways.
Martens helpfully defines what he means when he says it: “When I use the term ‘social justice,’ I mean nothing more than justice in the structuring of a society. I am referring to the design of a society in a way that treats all its members justly. A society is a group of people who live together in some ordered way.”
So then, should we make social justice/criminal justice a priority?
Martens answers:
“Christ’s salvific work includes our sanctification… what is sanctification if not Christ’s conforming us to live justly in this world.”
“the answer to injustice mislabeled as ‘social justice’ is not to abandon the pursuit of social justice altogether. True social justice belongs to the church. A real social justice— accomplished imperfectly now through our sanctification and perfectly in the end through our glorification in the new earth— is a crucial pose of the gospel.”
I find Thaddeus Williams’ distinction in CIWCT (above) helpful: “Justice is not the first thing. The gospel is. But that does not make justice optional to the Christian life… Instead of saying social justice is the gospel or in the gospel, it is more helpful to say social justice is from the gospel.”
Bottom line: God is just. And God is loving. Therefore we should care about justice and loving all his image bearers. If we are Christ-followers, neither of those things are optional; they are vital and will require sacrifice to strive for.
I think that might be the most poignant thing I take away from this book. Martens is aware that people tend to relate to one neighbor more than another—either the victim or the accused. This ‘bias’ then influences how we view and vote for things in the legal system.
A helpful analogy he used: If your two kids want to split the last piece of pie, you let one of them cut it in half and the other one gets to choose their piece first. The first kid makes a fair cut of the pie because they don’t know which piece they’ll be getting.
The same should be true of the legal system.
“If we most fear being a crime victim and think it unlikely that we could be criminally accused, we may well favor “victim’s rights,” resent procedural protections for criminal defendants that make convictions more difficult and support harsh sentences for those convicted. By contrast, if we most fear false conviction we may hold the opposite views.”
I was convicted that I subconsciously (or overtly) tend to think the accused is guilty and wave off certain issues because ‘they’re probably guilty anyway.’ That is not loving my neighbor and that is not promoting biblical justice.
As I read through the various procedures Martens details, I was pretty shocked by what is legal and how that affects the accused— and indirectly the victim if innocent people are being convicted and the actual perpetrators are going free. If I were accused, I can’t imagine having to face those disadvantages; I would feel pretty helpless!
The burden of proving guilt is on the prosecutor. The system should be built in a way that actually finds out the truth and convicts accurately, sentences proportionately, and is held accountable for their procedures. If we can do that, then we can trust that the guilty will be caught. We shouldn’t give prosecutors undue advantages that thwart that process.
“Identical treatment is not required of offender and victim, but equal regard for the good of them both (impartiality) is a key element of biblical justice.”
The hard reality is that that might mean some guilty go free if the prosecutor can’t gather enough compelling evidence or witnesses. But this book has softened my heart on this issue and I believe that is better than falsely convicting an innocent person which would be two injustices— wrongly punishing an innocent AND still allowing the guilty person to go free.
“But we are not without hope… Wrongdoers will not escape the arm of the Lord even if their time on this earth passes without giving an account.”
Martens states that the error rate of falsely convicted is about 2% given the information we have, but the rate is most likely higher.
“A conservative estimate is that at least 1 percent of the United States prison population, meaning approximately 20,000 people, is incarcerated as the result of wrongful convictions.”
“If you’re inclined to think that 1 to 2 percent is a low error rate, ask yourselves this: Would you willingly enter a room of one hundred people if you knew that one or two of them would be randomly shot and killed? Would you send your children into that room?”
I am one of the ones that is inclined to think 1-2% is low. But he’s right, that if I were to put myself in those shoes, I wouldn’t be okay with that risk. So what percentage of error is acceptable? He doesn’t say and I’m not sure we can put a number on it.
The idea is that if we can do better, we should.
And I believe there has to be a way. The problems he lists do not seem impossible to adjust.
[Goodreads didn't give me enough space to talk about them so see my list on my original post HERE]
The death penalty gets its own little blurb here as it’s a contested topic and one Martens admitted he changed his mind on. I appreciate the way Martens handled his answer to the question of whether capital punishment is just. He acknowledges that the Bible authorizes it and sometimes commands it.
“The biblical record is overwhelming in its affirmation of the death penalty as a just punishment for certain crimes.”
But he says,
“In a justice system that injects race into jury selections in trials before elected judges who run on ‘tough on crime’ campaign platforms with defendants represented by overworked and underfunded defense teams while the prosecution conceals exculpatory evidence without consequence, I am unwilling to wager another man’s life.”
And though I believe the death penalty is a valid deterrent and a just punishment in some cases, I can’t really argue with Martens here.
He gives a lot of statistics on the disproportionate application of the death penalty, particularly on black people.
“Most murders are intra-racial… In the most recent year for which data is available, 91% of Black murder victims were killed by Blacks, while 81% of White murder victims were killed by Whites… Thus were race not playing a role we would expect to see most of the Black defendants sentenced to death to be in cases where they murdered a fellow Black personal. In fact, the statistics show precisely the opposite.”
I don’t really understand how our justice system would still be operating with racial prejudice when it comes to applying the death penalty, but apparently the statistics show that. And if that is the case, then I think I would have to agree that until some changes are made to due process to actually find out the truth about who is guilty and who is innocent and then applying sentencing with a blind eye to race or social class, then I’m not sure I can defend the death penalty either.
What Am I Supposed to Do?
One of my critiques of a lot of these kinds of books is the that they spend the entire book criticizing ‘the system’ and showing how corrupt or unjust it is and then offer nothing constructive. We just sit there with all the pieces they shattered, unsure what to do with them.
That’s not helpful.
Martens doesn’t give answers in the form of policy changes we all need to request of our state governments, though part of me wishes he had.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach for all cultures, histories, localities, and generations— not even for all Christians… we have 3144 criminal justice systems— one for each county in the US, each with its distinct features, priorities, strengths, and weaknesses.”
But he doesn’t leave us empty-handed.
He gives us four exhortations:
- Think differently: view both the victim and the accused as your neighbor and an image-bearer of God; be careful of the labels you use and the jokes you make; want what is best for all people
- Speak differently: have better, more informed discussions about the actual issues instead of the political talking points; teach your children to love kindness, justice, and truth by the way you talk about others
- Work differently: for those who work in relation to the legal system, advocate for just laws or quit if your job forces you to act immorally
- Vote differently: criminal justice should be have high moral priority when considering who to vote for; be involved in the election of your county’s district attorney (pg 348 has a list of questions you may ask at a townhall; as a juror your vote is powerful so judge the case morally and with love for what is best for the defendant
“Each and every one of us can, starting even today, think differently about justice, speak differently in our sphere of influence, work differently if need be, and vote differently when the opportunity presents itself.”
It may not be the specific answers we wish we had, but Martens does give us more than most without piling on guilt.
Recommendation
This is a must-read book.
Especially if you have any sort of influence in the legal system from policing, to legislature, to trial participation to prison management. Go ahead and buy one for your district attorney, your judges, your senators, your representatives, your police chief.
Martens isn’t writing for a political agenda. He is writing for truth and justice and deals with facts and figures, laws and cases. It will shock you, it will anger you, and it will enlighten you.
As someone who knows both the law as it is in real life (not just in Suits or Law and Order) and the Bible, Martens is an excellent source to glean knowledge from as we look at how we can better love our neighbor through our criminal justice system.
Hopefully we are never at trial, but if we were, we would want a fair one and one that didn’t back us in a corner to plead guilty to something we didn’t do.
This is definitely a book I’ll reference and recommend when it comes to discussions of criminal justice.
Further Reading:
He attends church with Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman and quoted one of Leeman’s books that I also found to be a really helpful book:
How the Nations Rage by Jonathan Leeman
Their church is in the heart of D.C. and their congregation is a diverse piece of the political pie. This book helps us view politics rightly in the church and how to view and engage with brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree with our political values. It was fair, balanced, practical, and helpful.
Another relevant book is Kevin DeYoung’s book:
What is the Mission of the Church by Kevin DeYoung
This engages more with the tension of pursuing social justice without compromising the priority of the gospel. What is the church’s role? It is important to note that there is a difference between the individual and the church specifically. This book made sense to me though I’m sure there are people who will disagree with it.
I’m sure there are many books that tell the stories of innocent people on death row but here are a couple to start with:
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
I Shall Not Die by Billy Neal Moore
**I received a copy of this book via Crossway in exchange for an honest review**
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‘The American justice system is corrupt’ is a politically charged and unhelpful statement. But I’ve heard it like a broken record lately.
This book has done what nothing else has been able to do thus far: tell me specific ways the justice system is unfair, biased, or unjust.
Martens has both decades of law experience— as a federal prosecutor AND a criminal defense attorney— and a seminary degree. This puts him in a unique and extremely helpful position to help Christians (or non-believers for that matter) see the ways the justice system has failed (from firsthand experience in a courtroom) and help us think critically about how our criminal justice system functions in light of biblical justice.
Martens’s main thesis is that a justice system should be aligned with biblical justice in that it functions to love ALL neighbors— both the victims and the accused.
His writing is loving, fair, clear, and does not attempt to take sides on any recent politically charged and public case. I appreciated this because it increased my ability to trust his motive in writing in the book and the research he used to make his points.
He seems to have a very astute mind for the nation’s varying perspectives of the justice system and how conversations tend to go when talking about it— whether that’s in ignorance of what actually happens in the courtroom, popular crime and incarceration statistics, only looking at either the inputs or the outputs of the system, or just touting political talking points.
But none of this will accomplish much if we don’t understand “the design and operation of the features, procedures, actors, and laws that make up the system.”
The first part of the book shows us what the Bible says about justice and what God has ordained government’s role to be. Then it outlines five main pillars of biblical justice: accuracy, due process, impartiality, accountability, and proportionality.
“The core of biblical justice is accuracy, due process is the means to accuracy, impartiality protects accuracy, accountability punishes inaccuracy, and proportionality ensures accuracy about severity.”
He shows how the Bible requires sufficient evidence that shows what truly happened; that the process this happens through is designed to find truth and an opportunity for the accused to be heard; that verdicts are given out fairly across different races, genders, or social classes, not giving special treatment to ‘favored’ groups; that those in charge of rendering verdicts and moving the process along should not receive immunity if they fail to act morally and according to the law; and that the punishment fits and tells the truth about the severity of the crime.
The second part of the book takes those principles and then uses them to analyze various parts of our legal system such as: plea bargains, jury selection, judges, assistance of counsel, witnesses, exculpatory evidence, sentencing, and the death penalty.
Along the way Martens gives us the history of our legal system in general but also of various laws and procedures— why they were enacted and analyzes whether or not they are doing what they were intended to do.
Right up front he addresses the common objection to talking about criminal justice— that it distracts from the gospel.
The term ‘social justice’ can mean a lot of things right now (and I would highly recommend you read Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth to delve more into what it should mean), and often promotes its principles as higher than or equal to the gospel in many ways.
Martens helpfully defines what he means when he says it: “When I use the term ‘social justice,’ I mean nothing more than justice in the structuring of a society. I am referring to the design of a society in a way that treats all its members justly. A society is a group of people who live together in some ordered way.”
So then, should we make social justice/criminal justice a priority?
Martens answers:
“Christ’s salvific work includes our sanctification… what is sanctification if not Christ’s conforming us to live justly in this world.”
“the answer to injustice mislabeled as ‘social justice’ is not to abandon the pursuit of social justice altogether. True social justice belongs to the church. A real social justice— accomplished imperfectly now through our sanctification and perfectly in the end through our glorification in the new earth— is a crucial pose of the gospel.”
I find Thaddeus Williams’ distinction in CIWCT (above) helpful: “Justice is not the first thing. The gospel is. But that does not make justice optional to the Christian life… Instead of saying social justice is the gospel or in the gospel, it is more helpful to say social justice is from the gospel.”
Bottom line: God is just. And God is loving. Therefore we should care about justice and loving all his image bearers. If we are Christ-followers, neither of those things are optional; they are vital and will require sacrifice to strive for.
I think that might be the most poignant thing I take away from this book. Martens is aware that people tend to relate to one neighbor more than another—either the victim or the accused. This ‘bias’ then influences how we view and vote for things in the legal system.
A helpful analogy he used: If your two kids want to split the last piece of pie, you let one of them cut it in half and the other one gets to choose their piece first. The first kid makes a fair cut of the pie because they don’t know which piece they’ll be getting.
The same should be true of the legal system.
“If we most fear being a crime victim and think it unlikely that we could be criminally accused, we may well favor “victim’s rights,” resent procedural protections for criminal defendants that make convictions more difficult and support harsh sentences for those convicted. By contrast, if we most fear false conviction we may hold the opposite views.”
I was convicted that I subconsciously (or overtly) tend to think the accused is guilty and wave off certain issues because ‘they’re probably guilty anyway.’ That is not loving my neighbor and that is not promoting biblical justice.
As I read through the various procedures Martens details, I was pretty shocked by what is legal and how that affects the accused— and indirectly the victim if innocent people are being convicted and the actual perpetrators are going free. If I were accused, I can’t imagine having to face those disadvantages; I would feel pretty helpless!
The burden of proving guilt is on the prosecutor. The system should be built in a way that actually finds out the truth and convicts accurately, sentences proportionately, and is held accountable for their procedures. If we can do that, then we can trust that the guilty will be caught. We shouldn’t give prosecutors undue advantages that thwart that process.
“Identical treatment is not required of offender and victim, but equal regard for the good of them both (impartiality) is a key element of biblical justice.”
The hard reality is that that might mean some guilty go free if the prosecutor can’t gather enough compelling evidence or witnesses. But this book has softened my heart on this issue and I believe that is better than falsely convicting an innocent person which would be two injustices— wrongly punishing an innocent AND still allowing the guilty person to go free.
“But we are not without hope… Wrongdoers will not escape the arm of the Lord even if their time on this earth passes without giving an account.”
Martens states that the error rate of falsely convicted is about 2% given the information we have, but the rate is most likely higher.
“A conservative estimate is that at least 1 percent of the United States prison population, meaning approximately 20,000 people, is incarcerated as the result of wrongful convictions.”
“If you’re inclined to think that 1 to 2 percent is a low error rate, ask yourselves this: Would you willingly enter a room of one hundred people if you knew that one or two of them would be randomly shot and killed? Would you send your children into that room?”
I am one of the ones that is inclined to think 1-2% is low. But he’s right, that if I were to put myself in those shoes, I wouldn’t be okay with that risk. So what percentage of error is acceptable? He doesn’t say and I’m not sure we can put a number on it.
The idea is that if we can do better, we should.
And I believe there has to be a way. The problems he lists do not seem impossible to adjust.
[Goodreads didn't give me enough space to talk about them so see my list on my original post HERE]
The death penalty gets its own little blurb here as it’s a contested topic and one Martens admitted he changed his mind on. I appreciate the way Martens handled his answer to the question of whether capital punishment is just. He acknowledges that the Bible authorizes it and sometimes commands it.
“The biblical record is overwhelming in its affirmation of the death penalty as a just punishment for certain crimes.”
But he says,
“In a justice system that injects race into jury selections in trials before elected judges who run on ‘tough on crime’ campaign platforms with defendants represented by overworked and underfunded defense teams while the prosecution conceals exculpatory evidence without consequence, I am unwilling to wager another man’s life.”
And though I believe the death penalty is a valid deterrent and a just punishment in some cases, I can’t really argue with Martens here.
He gives a lot of statistics on the disproportionate application of the death penalty, particularly on black people.
“Most murders are intra-racial… In the most recent year for which data is available, 91% of Black murder victims were killed by Blacks, while 81% of White murder victims were killed by Whites… Thus were race not playing a role we would expect to see most of the Black defendants sentenced to death to be in cases where they murdered a fellow Black personal. In fact, the statistics show precisely the opposite.”
I don’t really understand how our justice system would still be operating with racial prejudice when it comes to applying the death penalty, but apparently the statistics show that. And if that is the case, then I think I would have to agree that until some changes are made to due process to actually find out the truth about who is guilty and who is innocent and then applying sentencing with a blind eye to race or social class, then I’m not sure I can defend the death penalty either.
What Am I Supposed to Do?
One of my critiques of a lot of these kinds of books is the that they spend the entire book criticizing ‘the system’ and showing how corrupt or unjust it is and then offer nothing constructive. We just sit there with all the pieces they shattered, unsure what to do with them.
That’s not helpful.
Martens doesn’t give answers in the form of policy changes we all need to request of our state governments, though part of me wishes he had.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach for all cultures, histories, localities, and generations— not even for all Christians… we have 3144 criminal justice systems— one for each county in the US, each with its distinct features, priorities, strengths, and weaknesses.”
But he doesn’t leave us empty-handed.
He gives us four exhortations:
- Think differently: view both the victim and the accused as your neighbor and an image-bearer of God; be careful of the labels you use and the jokes you make; want what is best for all people
- Speak differently: have better, more informed discussions about the actual issues instead of the political talking points; teach your children to love kindness, justice, and truth by the way you talk about others
- Work differently: for those who work in relation to the legal system, advocate for just laws or quit if your job forces you to act immorally
- Vote differently: criminal justice should be have high moral priority when considering who to vote for; be involved in the election of your county’s district attorney (pg 348 has a list of questions you may ask at a townhall; as a juror your vote is powerful so judge the case morally and with love for what is best for the defendant
“Each and every one of us can, starting even today, think differently about justice, speak differently in our sphere of influence, work differently if need be, and vote differently when the opportunity presents itself.”
It may not be the specific answers we wish we had, but Martens does give us more than most without piling on guilt.
Recommendation
This is a must-read book.
Especially if you have any sort of influence in the legal system from policing, to legislature, to trial participation to prison management. Go ahead and buy one for your district attorney, your judges, your senators, your representatives, your police chief.
Martens isn’t writing for a political agenda. He is writing for truth and justice and deals with facts and figures, laws and cases. It will shock you, it will anger you, and it will enlighten you.
As someone who knows both the law as it is in real life (not just in Suits or Law and Order) and the Bible, Martens is an excellent source to glean knowledge from as we look at how we can better love our neighbor through our criminal justice system.
Hopefully we are never at trial, but if we were, we would want a fair one and one that didn’t back us in a corner to plead guilty to something we didn’t do.
This is definitely a book I’ll reference and recommend when it comes to discussions of criminal justice.
Further Reading:
He attends church with Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman and quoted one of Leeman’s books that I also found to be a really helpful book:
How the Nations Rage by Jonathan Leeman
Their church is in the heart of D.C. and their congregation is a diverse piece of the political pie. This book helps us view politics rightly in the church and how to view and engage with brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree with our political values. It was fair, balanced, practical, and helpful.
Another relevant book is Kevin DeYoung’s book:
What is the Mission of the Church by Kevin DeYoung
This engages more with the tension of pursuing social justice without compromising the priority of the gospel. What is the church’s role? It is important to note that there is a difference between the individual and the church specifically. This book made sense to me though I’m sure there are people who will disagree with it.
I’m sure there are many books that tell the stories of innocent people on death row but here are a couple to start with:
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
I Shall Not Die by Billy Neal Moore
**I received a copy of this book via Crossway in exchange for an honest review**
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March 22, 2025
A must read for any Christian serious about their biblical responsibility to love their neighbor as themselves.
April 12, 2024
2.5 stars. Matthew Martens offers a unique perspective on the criminal justice system--as a criminal defense attorney, and having previously served as a federal prosecutor, a Supreme Court law clerk, and a political appointee in the DOJ. He is clearly sharp, thoughtful, and well-informed, and this book will introduce many readers to an area that most are unfamiliar with. Martens does an excellent job of explaining the different aspects of the modern American criminal justice system, its inner-workings and its flaws. For all its promise, however, and even after a strong start with the introductory chapters, the book fails to show a *full* picture of the criminal justice system, and it shies away from serious and open engagement on numerous contested issues.
Martens' main goal is to present a uniquely Christian ethic for criminal justice and to then highlight areas of our criminal justice system that are in need of reform, all from a balanced perspective. Though the book does a fine job with the first part, it doesn't actually attempt the second. It felt as though the book was improperly presented, both in what it tries to accomplish, and the manner in which it sought to accomplish it. Considering the book's title brings several of these defects to the forefront. First, a more accurate title could have been, “Issue Spotting for Criminal Justice,” since he repeatedly declines to prescribe any particular reforms and instead only points to issues and problems in the current system. Taking one example, plea bargaining: Martens excoriates the practice of plea bargaining, calling the practice "morally indefensible," then in conclusion he quickly notes that "[t]his isn't to suggest that plea bargaining as a concept is categorically unjust" and that "Christians should, in pursuit of justice, press to reform" this practice. Well, here is where the payoff would be, and the work of "reforming" would begin, but the chapter ends and the constructive work is never touched. This same thing is repeated for nearly all the chapters in the second half of the book--whether it be forensic evidence, exculpatory evidence, jury selection, the death penalty, the role of judges, or the definition of crimes.
A second possible title for the book could have been "Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Criminal Defense Attorney's Proposal," because over and over he presents arguments (such as, e.g., eyewitness identification, jury selection, sentencing guidelines, or the role of the judge) that are raised everyday in court by criminal defense attorneys, but the problem is that he pitches these as *the* Christian view. Prosecutors have good arguments for why eyewitness identifications are often crucial to a case and can be trusted, or why the criminal's other conduct should be considered in sentencing, or why even though judges are more often prosecutors, this doesn't lead to unfair bias, but you won't find those arguments represented, or even meniotned, here. One of Martens' favorite verses to cite is Proverbs 18:17 ("The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.") and this is an apt verse to keep in mind when reading this book as well.
A third possible title would be "Race and the Criminal Justice System." For though the book is pitched as a wide-angle lens on the criminal justice system and the reformed needed in this area, repeatedly throughout the book the main issues actually addressed are racial ones. This could easily have been fixed by changing the title and adjusting the framing of the issues in the early chapters, and last chapter, to limit the scope to these areas. As it is, the reader is left with a distorted picture, with one area magnified x10 and all other areas left in shadows, undiscussed. Take, for example, the "History" of criminal justice in America. The chapter is only 20 pages so I knew the history would be brief, but I expected it to be a "history" nonetheless. Instead, the chapter is devoted solely to showing how the criminal justice system has failed Black Americans. While this discussion is good, and necessary no doubt, and while I know race is an important part of our history of criminal justice, the entire chapter focuses solely on racial aspects of the criminal justice system. Of all the topics that could have been raised here--how the interaction between morality and criminal law has changed over the years, the role of the jury and its changes over the years, the changes in resources devoted to the various aspects of the criminal justice system (courts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, investigative agencies, etc.), how we adopted an adversarial system as opposed to England's inquisitorial justice system, and on and on. In Martens' 20-page account, spanning the founding era to current day, no other developments or issues are even mentioned. Which raises the question, why even label this chapter as "History"? And why introduce it with: "The justice system we have today is the product of more than two centuries of choices. Some of those choices were noble. Others were deeply nefarious. Understanding which is which is a crucial part of a fair evaluation of the system's justice." This was either an editorial oversight, misdirection, or, at worst, misleading.
These three issues, in the framing of the book, by themselves, wouldn't be too problematic. But, there are other problems too. A fundamental flaw is that the arguments for each of the various chapters fail to actually make a coherent argument that can be accepted on their face. Even if you go into the book, as I did, wanting to be convinced, each chapter is littered with glaring fallacies (inexcusable for someone with Martens' experience and credentials) such as non sequiturs, ipse dixit, post hoc ergo propter hoc, and simply unsupported claims, to the point where you are left to make up with gaps by simply accepting Martens' conclusions. I hesitate to mention this because I expected, and wanted, this book to be stellar. After the first few sloppy arguments, I was disappointed but didn't think much of it. It wasn't until reading through the whole first part and several chapters of the second part that I was forced to admit that this book isn't what I hoped it to be. The problem with all the fallacies is that, even if he is right, I cannot rely on his argument for nearly all of the points he makes.
Take one example, among countless others: on page 243, Martens is discussing judges and their bias. He cites to a judicial race for the Texas criminal appellate court, where a candidate touted herself as "prosecution oriented" (which was widely publicized and criticized at the time). You are left to assume that this is a common practice--it's not. Now, it may be--it would be a big surprise if true--but its possible. But aside form whether it's common or not, and how common it is, this is never actually touched; you must simply accept that Martens' "nut-picking," as it's called, is representative of the judiciary as a whole (this is a BIG assumption). Back to the argument: Martens immediately moves into the results of such campaigning, by citing to Andrus v. Texas, where the Texas criminal appellate court found that a criminal defense attorney was not incompetent. Again, we are lead to believe, and left to assume, that this was clearly wrong, though we, as the readers, don't actually know the full story. He then tells us that the Supreme Court reviewed the case and reversed, finding that Andrus' counsel had clearly provided "deficient performance," and Martens highlights that this opinion was joined by "[t]wo of the court's most conservative justices (including Brett Kavanaugh)." But if you actually read the Supreme Court's opinion, this is not the holding, they punted it back to the State court to continue the analysis. So, drawing the assumptions as suggested, the reader is left to conclude that these Texas judges and their bias intentionally overlooked the obvious truth here. Except…if you look at the Texas criminal appellate opinion, it was per curium (meaning "by the court" as a whole and not authored by a singular judge, much less the judge previously sighted as biased). Then, if you read the Supreme Court's opinion, you'll notice that Justice Alito (joined by Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch) wrote a scathing dissenting opinion contending for the opposite result, to affirm the Texas criminal appellate court. With these three justices dissenting, who is Martens referring to as the two "most conservative" justices, if its not Alito or Thomas? And what does this opinion/case have to do with judicial elections? To be honest, I agree with his main point here (about judicial elections), but his whole discussion moves the ball forward not an inch. (He surprisingly even admits as much, asking rhetorically, is there a connection between the Andrus opinions(!) and the judge he cited beforehand? And answering, "We don't know.")
Other examples abound, such as Martens' framing of numerous hot-button issues (e.g., the right to speedy trial, plea bargaining, impartiality, and the death penalty). If you read only Martens' treatment, you would think the courts have all lost their minds and are simply trampling on the rights of criminal defendants. But if a reader is curious, as I was, and actually reads the opinions of the cases cited in the footnotes (with the right to speedy trial, for example), it becomes clear that things are not as straightforward--and not as bleak--as Martens makes them out to be.
Time and time again through the book, Martens shows himself a bit too comfortable with broad-jumping over the necessary premises for his arguments. This is a significant issue in a book like this, where most readers will likely be unfamiliar with these topics, and won't be able to easily look up his case citations to read the materials for themselves. Granted, taking the effort to support premises and fortify arguments would surely add pages and get into contested, thorny issues. Most of the fallacies in the book are easy, ones that slant toward positions that will not likely be contested, but it is concerning nonetheless. He makes lots of good points in the book, and I would loved to have seen him brings these points home, but it didn't happen. This doesn't mean he's necessarily wrong, but it does mean that he hasn't proven his case on the numerous topics he addresses.
Martens' main goal is to present a uniquely Christian ethic for criminal justice and to then highlight areas of our criminal justice system that are in need of reform, all from a balanced perspective. Though the book does a fine job with the first part, it doesn't actually attempt the second. It felt as though the book was improperly presented, both in what it tries to accomplish, and the manner in which it sought to accomplish it. Considering the book's title brings several of these defects to the forefront. First, a more accurate title could have been, “Issue Spotting for Criminal Justice,” since he repeatedly declines to prescribe any particular reforms and instead only points to issues and problems in the current system. Taking one example, plea bargaining: Martens excoriates the practice of plea bargaining, calling the practice "morally indefensible," then in conclusion he quickly notes that "[t]his isn't to suggest that plea bargaining as a concept is categorically unjust" and that "Christians should, in pursuit of justice, press to reform" this practice. Well, here is where the payoff would be, and the work of "reforming" would begin, but the chapter ends and the constructive work is never touched. This same thing is repeated for nearly all the chapters in the second half of the book--whether it be forensic evidence, exculpatory evidence, jury selection, the death penalty, the role of judges, or the definition of crimes.
A second possible title for the book could have been "Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Criminal Defense Attorney's Proposal," because over and over he presents arguments (such as, e.g., eyewitness identification, jury selection, sentencing guidelines, or the role of the judge) that are raised everyday in court by criminal defense attorneys, but the problem is that he pitches these as *the* Christian view. Prosecutors have good arguments for why eyewitness identifications are often crucial to a case and can be trusted, or why the criminal's other conduct should be considered in sentencing, or why even though judges are more often prosecutors, this doesn't lead to unfair bias, but you won't find those arguments represented, or even meniotned, here. One of Martens' favorite verses to cite is Proverbs 18:17 ("The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.") and this is an apt verse to keep in mind when reading this book as well.
A third possible title would be "Race and the Criminal Justice System." For though the book is pitched as a wide-angle lens on the criminal justice system and the reformed needed in this area, repeatedly throughout the book the main issues actually addressed are racial ones. This could easily have been fixed by changing the title and adjusting the framing of the issues in the early chapters, and last chapter, to limit the scope to these areas. As it is, the reader is left with a distorted picture, with one area magnified x10 and all other areas left in shadows, undiscussed. Take, for example, the "History" of criminal justice in America. The chapter is only 20 pages so I knew the history would be brief, but I expected it to be a "history" nonetheless. Instead, the chapter is devoted solely to showing how the criminal justice system has failed Black Americans. While this discussion is good, and necessary no doubt, and while I know race is an important part of our history of criminal justice, the entire chapter focuses solely on racial aspects of the criminal justice system. Of all the topics that could have been raised here--how the interaction between morality and criminal law has changed over the years, the role of the jury and its changes over the years, the changes in resources devoted to the various aspects of the criminal justice system (courts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, investigative agencies, etc.), how we adopted an adversarial system as opposed to England's inquisitorial justice system, and on and on. In Martens' 20-page account, spanning the founding era to current day, no other developments or issues are even mentioned. Which raises the question, why even label this chapter as "History"? And why introduce it with: "The justice system we have today is the product of more than two centuries of choices. Some of those choices were noble. Others were deeply nefarious. Understanding which is which is a crucial part of a fair evaluation of the system's justice." This was either an editorial oversight, misdirection, or, at worst, misleading.
These three issues, in the framing of the book, by themselves, wouldn't be too problematic. But, there are other problems too. A fundamental flaw is that the arguments for each of the various chapters fail to actually make a coherent argument that can be accepted on their face. Even if you go into the book, as I did, wanting to be convinced, each chapter is littered with glaring fallacies (inexcusable for someone with Martens' experience and credentials) such as non sequiturs, ipse dixit, post hoc ergo propter hoc, and simply unsupported claims, to the point where you are left to make up with gaps by simply accepting Martens' conclusions. I hesitate to mention this because I expected, and wanted, this book to be stellar. After the first few sloppy arguments, I was disappointed but didn't think much of it. It wasn't until reading through the whole first part and several chapters of the second part that I was forced to admit that this book isn't what I hoped it to be. The problem with all the fallacies is that, even if he is right, I cannot rely on his argument for nearly all of the points he makes.
Take one example, among countless others: on page 243, Martens is discussing judges and their bias. He cites to a judicial race for the Texas criminal appellate court, where a candidate touted herself as "prosecution oriented" (which was widely publicized and criticized at the time). You are left to assume that this is a common practice--it's not. Now, it may be--it would be a big surprise if true--but its possible. But aside form whether it's common or not, and how common it is, this is never actually touched; you must simply accept that Martens' "nut-picking," as it's called, is representative of the judiciary as a whole (this is a BIG assumption). Back to the argument: Martens immediately moves into the results of such campaigning, by citing to Andrus v. Texas, where the Texas criminal appellate court found that a criminal defense attorney was not incompetent. Again, we are lead to believe, and left to assume, that this was clearly wrong, though we, as the readers, don't actually know the full story. He then tells us that the Supreme Court reviewed the case and reversed, finding that Andrus' counsel had clearly provided "deficient performance," and Martens highlights that this opinion was joined by "[t]wo of the court's most conservative justices (including Brett Kavanaugh)." But if you actually read the Supreme Court's opinion, this is not the holding, they punted it back to the State court to continue the analysis. So, drawing the assumptions as suggested, the reader is left to conclude that these Texas judges and their bias intentionally overlooked the obvious truth here. Except…if you look at the Texas criminal appellate opinion, it was per curium (meaning "by the court" as a whole and not authored by a singular judge, much less the judge previously sighted as biased). Then, if you read the Supreme Court's opinion, you'll notice that Justice Alito (joined by Justice Thomas and Justice Gorsuch) wrote a scathing dissenting opinion contending for the opposite result, to affirm the Texas criminal appellate court. With these three justices dissenting, who is Martens referring to as the two "most conservative" justices, if its not Alito or Thomas? And what does this opinion/case have to do with judicial elections? To be honest, I agree with his main point here (about judicial elections), but his whole discussion moves the ball forward not an inch. (He surprisingly even admits as much, asking rhetorically, is there a connection between the Andrus opinions(!) and the judge he cited beforehand? And answering, "We don't know.")
Other examples abound, such as Martens' framing of numerous hot-button issues (e.g., the right to speedy trial, plea bargaining, impartiality, and the death penalty). If you read only Martens' treatment, you would think the courts have all lost their minds and are simply trampling on the rights of criminal defendants. But if a reader is curious, as I was, and actually reads the opinions of the cases cited in the footnotes (with the right to speedy trial, for example), it becomes clear that things are not as straightforward--and not as bleak--as Martens makes them out to be.
Time and time again through the book, Martens shows himself a bit too comfortable with broad-jumping over the necessary premises for his arguments. This is a significant issue in a book like this, where most readers will likely be unfamiliar with these topics, and won't be able to easily look up his case citations to read the materials for themselves. Granted, taking the effort to support premises and fortify arguments would surely add pages and get into contested, thorny issues. Most of the fallacies in the book are easy, ones that slant toward positions that will not likely be contested, but it is concerning nonetheless. He makes lots of good points in the book, and I would loved to have seen him brings these points home, but it didn't happen. This doesn't mean he's necessarily wrong, but it does mean that he hasn't proven his case on the numerous topics he addresses.
January 20, 2025
Unfortunately, like many Americans, much of what I thought I knew about our criminal justice system has been gleaned from movies and television. Martens, who has many years of experience as both a federal prosecutor and a defense attorney, reveals the truth about our system. And it’s not pretty.
Martens (who also went to seminary) starts with this foundation: as Christians, it is our duty to love our neighbors. This means we are to love the victims of crime, which is relatively easy since we can often sympathize with them. But we are also called to love the perpetrators of crime, which is substantially more difficult. But still important.
Ideally, our system of justice should reflect this love. So how exactly do we properly balance love to both victims and criminals? Martens suggests that a truly just (and Christian) criminal justice system would demonstrate these features:
-Accuracy
-Due process
-Proportionality
-Impartiality
-Accountability
He then examines several areas of the American system, evaluating them through these five lenses, revealing the disturbing number of areas where our system fails to provide true justice. The specific topics he discusses are plea bargaining, jury selection, judges, assistance of counsel, exculpatory evidence, witnesses, sentencing, and the death penalty.
One important point Martens makes is that most of the American public can imagine themselves someday being a victim of crime, so we tend to focus on making sure that criminals pay for their crimes. We therefore want to be “tough on crime.” Many of us rarely consider that we might someday be accused of a crime. If we ever found ourselves in this position our perspective of proper justice would be vastly different. Martens believes that our system should be set up in such a way that we would believe that justice would just as likely to be done whether we would find ourselves as victims of a crime or as the accused.
Many of us would like to believe that the American system of justice is the best in the world. Perhaps it is. But this eye-opening book demonstrates that it sure has a lot of room for improvement.
Highly recommended. One of my favorite books of the year.
Here are some great reviews:
Brittany’s review
Ched’s review
Martens (who also went to seminary) starts with this foundation: as Christians, it is our duty to love our neighbors. This means we are to love the victims of crime, which is relatively easy since we can often sympathize with them. But we are also called to love the perpetrators of crime, which is substantially more difficult. But still important.
Ideally, our system of justice should reflect this love. So how exactly do we properly balance love to both victims and criminals? Martens suggests that a truly just (and Christian) criminal justice system would demonstrate these features:
-Accuracy
-Due process
-Proportionality
-Impartiality
-Accountability
He then examines several areas of the American system, evaluating them through these five lenses, revealing the disturbing number of areas where our system fails to provide true justice. The specific topics he discusses are plea bargaining, jury selection, judges, assistance of counsel, exculpatory evidence, witnesses, sentencing, and the death penalty.
One important point Martens makes is that most of the American public can imagine themselves someday being a victim of crime, so we tend to focus on making sure that criminals pay for their crimes. We therefore want to be “tough on crime.” Many of us rarely consider that we might someday be accused of a crime. If we ever found ourselves in this position our perspective of proper justice would be vastly different. Martens believes that our system should be set up in such a way that we would believe that justice would just as likely to be done whether we would find ourselves as victims of a crime or as the accused.
Many of us would like to believe that the American system of justice is the best in the world. Perhaps it is. But this eye-opening book demonstrates that it sure has a lot of room for improvement.
Highly recommended. One of my favorite books of the year.
Here are some great reviews:
Brittany’s review
Ched’s review
November 29, 2023
As a lawyer, I’ll admit this book challenged some of the thoughts and opinions I brought with me into reading it. I’ll go so far as to say this was an uncomfortable read at times. But I respect that and I give Martens credit for it. You may expect the author of a book advocating for criminal justice reform to be some “lefty” or “soft on crime” type. Not so. This is a guy who was a federal prosecutor and clerked for the notoriously conservative Chief Justice Rehnquist.
I’ll add as an aside that I don’t think non-lawyers should assume this book is just for lawyers or that only lawyers would be able to understand it. It’s not full of a whole bunch of legalese. I recall seeing maybe one or two Latin phrases, which were translated.
I’ll add as an aside that I don’t think non-lawyers should assume this book is just for lawyers or that only lawyers would be able to understand it. It’s not full of a whole bunch of legalese. I recall seeing maybe one or two Latin phrases, which were translated.
January 5, 2024
Eye-opening, saddening, thought-provoking, yet brimming with gospel hope is this compelling book. Matthew Martens, an elite and well-respected lawyer (just Google him!), presents a biblical case for reforming the U.S. criminal justice system. It is extremely well-researched and theologically sound (he also holds a Masters in Theology). Prior to reading this book, I did not realize the extent to which the American criminal justice system has been disproportionately skewed against Black Americans throughout history—the data is overwhelming.
The chapter on the death penalty (Chapter 18) is especially moving. Martens makes the case that the death penalty is biblical only under certain prescribed conditions, yet it has been unjustly applied in the U.S. justice system. Here are just a couple quotes from this chapter: “Since then [1776], the racial makeup of those executed in the United States has remained remarkably consistent: of those executed, 48-49 percent have been Black… A sentence of death is one disproportionately carried out on Black people relative to their percentage of the population… In the twentieth century, 818 people were executed in the United States for non-homicide offenses. Of those, 725 (89 percent) were Black while only 76 (9 percent) were White.” (p. 327). He also notes how, since 1973, at least 2% of people sentenced to death were wrongly condemned, and there is good reason to believe that the number is as high as 4%. He laments, “In a justice system that injects race into jury selection in trials before elected judges who run on ‘tough on crime’ campaign platforms with defendants represented by overworked and underfunded defense teams while the prosecution conceals exculpatory evidence without consequence, I am unwilling to wager another man’s life.” (p. 338). Wow.
I’d highly recommend this book to anyone, whether he or she is a Christian or not.
The chapter on the death penalty (Chapter 18) is especially moving. Martens makes the case that the death penalty is biblical only under certain prescribed conditions, yet it has been unjustly applied in the U.S. justice system. Here are just a couple quotes from this chapter: “Since then [1776], the racial makeup of those executed in the United States has remained remarkably consistent: of those executed, 48-49 percent have been Black… A sentence of death is one disproportionately carried out on Black people relative to their percentage of the population… In the twentieth century, 818 people were executed in the United States for non-homicide offenses. Of those, 725 (89 percent) were Black while only 76 (9 percent) were White.” (p. 327). He also notes how, since 1973, at least 2% of people sentenced to death were wrongly condemned, and there is good reason to believe that the number is as high as 4%. He laments, “In a justice system that injects race into jury selection in trials before elected judges who run on ‘tough on crime’ campaign platforms with defendants represented by overworked and underfunded defense teams while the prosecution conceals exculpatory evidence without consequence, I am unwilling to wager another man’s life.” (p. 338). Wow.
I’d highly recommend this book to anyone, whether he or she is a Christian or not.
November 25, 2024
A must read for Christians!
As believers we are called to promote and provide justice in our own lives and broadly as believers in our country. However, we are broken people and as a result have enacted broken systems and operations.
This book is an amazing resource to see the what and how of our justice system and explore both its triumphs and terrors to those who fall under it.
The author uses this book as a source to explain our criminal justice system, expose it’s flaws, and provide biblical solutions that will help us move forward and care for the lost/guilty and help rehabilitate and redeem rather than just condemn and damn them away.
As believers we are called to promote and provide justice in our own lives and broadly as believers in our country. However, we are broken people and as a result have enacted broken systems and operations.
This book is an amazing resource to see the what and how of our justice system and explore both its triumphs and terrors to those who fall under it.
The author uses this book as a source to explain our criminal justice system, expose it’s flaws, and provide biblical solutions that will help us move forward and care for the lost/guilty and help rehabilitate and redeem rather than just condemn and damn them away.
February 12, 2024
In Reforming Criminal Justice: A Christian Proposal, Matthew Martens probes a vexing question: Does Christian love permeate America's criminal justice system? Drawing from his legal and theological expertise, Martens challenges conventional perspectives, offering a framework for reform. Martens navigates the complex intersection of law, theology, and social justice, inviting a dialogue that stirs both agreement and dissent, leaving readers grappling with its provocative implications. However, his analysis frustrates as much as it enlightens.
Points of exasperation: it vacillates between orthodox affirmations of justification by faith and muddled definitions that blur the distinction between law and gospel. In discussing the Gospel and social justice, Martens challenges traditional interpretations by characterizing passages in Deuteronomy as "invitations" rather than commands and labeling the oracles of weal and woe in the Mosaic covenant as "good news." His arguments exhibit a hint of Wesleyan perfectionism, evident in his assertion that we should punish only those guilty of wrongdoing without fully accounting for the continuing presence of sin as a barrier to this ideal. Throughout the text, Martens's complex notions of "failure of neighbor love" could be simplified by the more straightforward term "sin." He even conflates killing and murder, which is unforgivable for a lawyer. Because of this muddled writing, I can’t recommend this book.
Points of exasperation: it vacillates between orthodox affirmations of justification by faith and muddled definitions that blur the distinction between law and gospel. In discussing the Gospel and social justice, Martens challenges traditional interpretations by characterizing passages in Deuteronomy as "invitations" rather than commands and labeling the oracles of weal and woe in the Mosaic covenant as "good news." His arguments exhibit a hint of Wesleyan perfectionism, evident in his assertion that we should punish only those guilty of wrongdoing without fully accounting for the continuing presence of sin as a barrier to this ideal. Throughout the text, Martens's complex notions of "failure of neighbor love" could be simplified by the more straightforward term "sin." He even conflates killing and murder, which is unforgivable for a lawyer. Because of this muddled writing, I can’t recommend this book.
January 25, 2024
A helpful, sobering guide to Christian thought on criminal justice.
In Part 1, Martens draws on his theological training to lay the philosophical foundation of his views throughout the second part of the book. Just War Theory and Christian natural law both contribute prominently, and his work is thorough to the point of fastidiousness.
Part 2 is where the book really shines. Martens applies his depth of experience on both sides of the adversarial justice system, focusing on the most salient issues within the criminal justice system and analyzing them along the lines of the Samaritan, neighbor-love goals he laid out before. Consistently and responsibly nonsectarian, he objectively discusses the indictments against American criminal justice. Readers of all convictions would do well to wrestle with the questions he raises.
One notable absence is the Proposal itself. The penultimate chapter includes his encouragements for Christians in their daily thinking about American justice systems, but his remaining politically disinterested leaves me wishing for his opinion on policy changes, an opinion that the book proves is expert indeed.
In Part 1, Martens draws on his theological training to lay the philosophical foundation of his views throughout the second part of the book. Just War Theory and Christian natural law both contribute prominently, and his work is thorough to the point of fastidiousness.
Part 2 is where the book really shines. Martens applies his depth of experience on both sides of the adversarial justice system, focusing on the most salient issues within the criminal justice system and analyzing them along the lines of the Samaritan, neighbor-love goals he laid out before. Consistently and responsibly nonsectarian, he objectively discusses the indictments against American criminal justice. Readers of all convictions would do well to wrestle with the questions he raises.
One notable absence is the Proposal itself. The penultimate chapter includes his encouragements for Christians in their daily thinking about American justice systems, but his remaining politically disinterested leaves me wishing for his opinion on policy changes, an opinion that the book proves is expert indeed.
January 18, 2025
Really, really helpful. An excellent explanation of the criminal justice system as practiced in America revealing both it's intended justice but it's often bitter fruit of injustice. Yet Martens points the Christian to practical steps towards hopeful change.
He also does a masterful job of showing how gospel faithfulness is inseparable from so-called social justice (which is another term for love).
He also does a masterful job of showing how gospel faithfulness is inseparable from so-called social justice (which is another term for love).
September 14, 2024
Outstanding and important.
Martens describes the various components of biblical justice in the first half of the book, and then he examines how we (the US) is doing against this standard in the second half of the book. Both sections are thorough but accessible, and sobering.
Martens describes the various components of biblical justice in the first half of the book, and then he examines how we (the US) is doing against this standard in the second half of the book. Both sections are thorough but accessible, and sobering.
January 16, 2025
You probably wouldn't expect a book exploring the criminal justice system to use "love your neighbor as yourself" as it's basis for analyzing all aspects of the system. Or if you did, you would maybe think it would be a flimsy hippie take which treats lightly a serious subject. But this book does a great job of handling the second greatest commandment in the highest sincerity and importance. I was personally challenged by this book as a Christian, as a member of society, and on a professional level since I have been an active participant in the criminal justice system through my job. This book would be great required reading for law school. Everyone should read this.
April 22, 2024
Absolutely riveting. I learned so much, and I was left with a multitude of issues to consider moving forward. Martens is a very skilled writer, thinker, and communicator, and I’d recommend this book to anyone, regardless of their pre-existing knowledge on the subject.
January 18, 2024
Reforming Criminal Justice a is an exceptional book. Like a tour guide, Matt Martens has grabbed us by the hand and walked us through the criminal justice system. He has given us back stage passes to the complexity of the system and has provided insightful information that educates anyone who has little to no knowledge of our criminal justice system. Due to decades of experience, Martens is qualified to unpack the criminal justice system.
Martens not only provided important details about the system, he provided a robust biblical framework for Christians on how we should think about loving neighbor as it pertains to justice. Scripture isn’t silent on the topic of justice, for justice is an attribute of God (Gen. 18:25, Ps. 89:14). He commands us to do justice (Micah 6:8). In pursuing justice, we must be concerned about loving neighbors. The second is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:37-39). Martens helpfully and convincingly provides a framework of evaluating the criminal justice system in a way that’s helps us pursue love of neighbor.
The more I read the book the more my mouth kept dropping to the floor. I was immediately reminded of Ecclesiastes 3:16 - I also observed under the sun: there is wickedness at the place of judgment… Martens gave receipts—history, statistics and loads of footnotes. He demonstrated that there is a need for reform in the criminal justice system.
As I read the book there were numerous times when I wept and was driven to prayer. The book is insightful, instructive and hopeful. I’m confident in the Lord that readers won’t close the book feeling powerless and hopeless because Martens unpacks what we can do (jury duty, voting, etc.). Also, Martens points us to the glorious day that Christians await, the return of Christ Jesus. When he comes, he will right every wrong and do away with sin and injustice. He will make all things new.
Martens not only provided important details about the system, he provided a robust biblical framework for Christians on how we should think about loving neighbor as it pertains to justice. Scripture isn’t silent on the topic of justice, for justice is an attribute of God (Gen. 18:25, Ps. 89:14). He commands us to do justice (Micah 6:8). In pursuing justice, we must be concerned about loving neighbors. The second is like it, “Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:37-39). Martens helpfully and convincingly provides a framework of evaluating the criminal justice system in a way that’s helps us pursue love of neighbor.
The more I read the book the more my mouth kept dropping to the floor. I was immediately reminded of Ecclesiastes 3:16 - I also observed under the sun: there is wickedness at the place of judgment… Martens gave receipts—history, statistics and loads of footnotes. He demonstrated that there is a need for reform in the criminal justice system.
As I read the book there were numerous times when I wept and was driven to prayer. The book is insightful, instructive and hopeful. I’m confident in the Lord that readers won’t close the book feeling powerless and hopeless because Martens unpacks what we can do (jury duty, voting, etc.). Also, Martens points us to the glorious day that Christians await, the return of Christ Jesus. When he comes, he will right every wrong and do away with sin and injustice. He will make all things new.
January 12, 2024
Found this book helpful. The first half is a Christian ethic and framework for thinking about criminal justice. Just war theory is used as a lens to view criminal justice. Scripture as well as the likes of Augustine, Bavinck, O’Donovan and others are drawn on to lay the framework for part 2 of the book. The second half includes both history of the American criminal justice system as well as critique and analysis using the tools from part 1.
A real strength of this book is both its carefulness in stating what it is and isn’t saying and also its forcefulness. It is easy for books of this sort (here are all these things wrong with x) to sound an alarm with a puffed up chest while subtly letting some or everyone know how dumb or complicit they are. The book communicated its points with force and clarity while maintaining a tone more akin to lament and seeking to educate. It ends not in trivializing what has and is happening but also not in hopelessness. It draws readers to some very real practical steps to take within their “moral proximity” and ultimately points readers to the Christian eschaton where true justice will come and also mercy and life for those in Christ.
My legal knowledge is limited and I don’t doubt there are areas for critique and good faith discussion within some of the theological and historical arguments made, but by and large this was a helpful read. The book isn’t about seeking to provide specific policy options for change, but rather providing a number of theological and practical tools for seeking to love neighbors as we love ourselves.
Misc. Notes:
-The mere fidelity episode on this book is a good teaser for it.
-Interested in technological landscape in the legal world (eg saas for documenting evidence to avoid Brady rule violations and fully report evidence collected). Is there need for development here? Already advance and developed, but abused or prevented (like voice recordings)?
A real strength of this book is both its carefulness in stating what it is and isn’t saying and also its forcefulness. It is easy for books of this sort (here are all these things wrong with x) to sound an alarm with a puffed up chest while subtly letting some or everyone know how dumb or complicit they are. The book communicated its points with force and clarity while maintaining a tone more akin to lament and seeking to educate. It ends not in trivializing what has and is happening but also not in hopelessness. It draws readers to some very real practical steps to take within their “moral proximity” and ultimately points readers to the Christian eschaton where true justice will come and also mercy and life for those in Christ.
My legal knowledge is limited and I don’t doubt there are areas for critique and good faith discussion within some of the theological and historical arguments made, but by and large this was a helpful read. The book isn’t about seeking to provide specific policy options for change, but rather providing a number of theological and practical tools for seeking to love neighbors as we love ourselves.
Misc. Notes:
-The mere fidelity episode on this book is a good teaser for it.
-Interested in technological landscape in the legal world (eg saas for documenting evidence to avoid Brady rule violations and fully report evidence collected). Is there need for development here? Already advance and developed, but abused or prevented (like voice recordings)?
December 16, 2024
Engaging and well-written book about an important topic by a seminary-educated attorney with experience as both a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. The book explores how Christians should think about topics in the United States criminal justice system by overlaying contemporary legal topics (bail reform, death penalty, etc.) with Christian moral frameworks including Abrahamic law, New Testament parables, epistles, and Just War Theory.
Overall the author does a great job of presenting the issues logically and fairly and establishing as criteria that Christians must demand a criminal justice system that is accurate, accountable, impartial, provides due process, and punishes offenders proportionally.
GK Chesterton once said that the reformer is almost always right about the problem and almost always wrong about the solution. To the author’s credit, he seems to have heeded that advice by not offering his own opinion on sweeping universal reforms. If I had to critique one small part of the book, it would be some “interesting” usage of statistics by the author to try and make his point. For example, the author compares the number of federal judges with experience as prosecutors to the number with experience as public defenders instead of criminal defense practice (public and private) to prove a point about judges being unfairly biased towards the prosecution point of view. While his conclusion may still be true, I imagine the reason that he chose to excuse private criminal defense practice experience from the comparison is because it would invert the ratio in contradiction to the author’s desired point.
Overall the author does a great job of presenting the issues logically and fairly and establishing as criteria that Christians must demand a criminal justice system that is accurate, accountable, impartial, provides due process, and punishes offenders proportionally.
GK Chesterton once said that the reformer is almost always right about the problem and almost always wrong about the solution. To the author’s credit, he seems to have heeded that advice by not offering his own opinion on sweeping universal reforms. If I had to critique one small part of the book, it would be some “interesting” usage of statistics by the author to try and make his point. For example, the author compares the number of federal judges with experience as prosecutors to the number with experience as public defenders instead of criminal defense practice (public and private) to prove a point about judges being unfairly biased towards the prosecution point of view. While his conclusion may still be true, I imagine the reason that he chose to excuse private criminal defense practice experience from the comparison is because it would invert the ratio in contradiction to the author’s desired point.
July 10, 2024
“In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus’s criticism of the priest and the Levite was not that they had harmed the traveler but that they had failed to help when they saw someone suffering. They knew the facts. But they responded as if the facts weren’t their problem. They hadn’t robbed the man on the roadside, and they weren’t going to be bothered to assist. The neighbor love displayed by the Samaritan, however, was not love for one whom the Samaritan had harmed. The Samaritan was good because he stopped to help fix a mess he did not cause. He acted not because he was culpable but because he was close. Christ’s command to the lawyer who sought to justify his own self-righteous sense of himself—and to you and to me, who are all too often tempted in the same way—was to ‘go, and do likewise’.”
So much of value in this book. It will teach you about our criminal justice system in detail, and it will press you to look and see all the ways it has fallen and still does fall short of Biblical justice. Reforming Criminal Justice is thorough, thoughtful, and deeply concerned about making our system one in which BOTH participants - the accused and the accuser - receive the love and consideration they are due as human beings made in God’s image.
So much of value in this book. It will teach you about our criminal justice system in detail, and it will press you to look and see all the ways it has fallen and still does fall short of Biblical justice. Reforming Criminal Justice is thorough, thoughtful, and deeply concerned about making our system one in which BOTH participants - the accused and the accuser - receive the love and consideration they are due as human beings made in God’s image.
July 5, 2024
Powerful book. Rarely have I had a book persuasively challenge my own thinking. Sometimes it was along the lines of “You aren’t even close to thinking properly as a Christian about a certain aspect of the justice system”. At other times it was”I haven’t even thought about that”.
Martens begins this book by explaining Christian love, and how love and justice are inextricably linked. He indicates biblical justice and love of neighbor demands five things: Accuracy, Due process, Accountability, Impartiality, and Proportionality.
In Part 2, he tackles all the aspects of the American criminal justice system, from it’s history, to jury selection, to sentencing (and many others in between), and applies those five demands of biblical justice, usually indicating how far our system falls short.
He concludes with some practical things that we, as private and community Christians, can do to help move the Criminal Justice needle.
The book is replete with biblical support, as well as how many Christian thinkers, over the millennia, have thought through some of these issues.
I HIGHLY recommend this book.
Martens begins this book by explaining Christian love, and how love and justice are inextricably linked. He indicates biblical justice and love of neighbor demands five things: Accuracy, Due process, Accountability, Impartiality, and Proportionality.
In Part 2, he tackles all the aspects of the American criminal justice system, from it’s history, to jury selection, to sentencing (and many others in between), and applies those five demands of biblical justice, usually indicating how far our system falls short.
He concludes with some practical things that we, as private and community Christians, can do to help move the Criminal Justice needle.
The book is replete with biblical support, as well as how many Christian thinkers, over the millennia, have thought through some of these issues.
I HIGHLY recommend this book.
January 20, 2025
This book is a worthwhile read for the Christian lawyer and layman alike. Justice has been too long cast along political lines and this work calls back into perspective what it means for justice to be Biblical. The topics presented are complex and the path forward is not entirely clear, but the beauty of the Christian life is that we are sent a Helper to guide us as we seek to extend Christ-like love to our neighbors. This book provided an important reminder of the call to be the Good Samaritan to all of our neighbors and provides practical guidance on how to make sense of our calling.
June 21, 2024
My rating is 4.5/5. The only thing I thought would make the book better is if it had the “Biblical Justice” sections had more citations to scripture, but I can see how it would be repetitive. Overall a fantastic read. I’ve seen some other reviews not like the book because it made them uncomfortable, but it’s important to be uncomfortable when it comes to the realities of our criminal justice system. I would recommend this book for lawyers and Christians who want to learn more about our current system and how we can do better.
July 5, 2025
An incredibly well-researched, well-written, eye opening book on how the American justice system operates in comparison to biblical principles of justice. The author composed two parts to the book: a biblical theology of justice based on loving our neighbor as ourselves, then examining all facets of our justice system against that theology. It’s a much needed book, especially for the American church. Highly recommend!
October 24, 2024
This book has moments of dense writing that can discourage the reader from pushing through, but the arguments contained merit the effort. I think this book is a must read for any American hoping to develop their understanding and thinking about our criminal justice system. Further, it is absolutely indispensable for any Christian attorney, especially one working in criminal law.
April 30, 2025
I thought I knew how the American justice system worked. I was wrong. The author does an excellent job of explaining the details of our justice system and filtering them through a Christian framework. It’s the perfect book to read and to discuss with friends.
February 28, 2024
I am a defense attorney. The topic of criminal justice reform is very important to me, but I’m also very biased. I like Marten’s balanced take. He’s a former prosecutor and current defense attorney, so he’s looking at this issue from both sides. He does this without the “both sides-ism” you can sometimes get from ppl who halfway attempt nuance. This is genuinely nuanced. He argues that as Christians, we should love both crime victims and criminals. How we do so is what matters.
The greatest strength, though, is in the book’s framework approach to criminal justice reform. Martens imparts a lot of information on the criminal legal system. He also speaks authoritatively on what principles we should hold in terms of evaluating the legal system. However, he doesn’t advocate specific policy decisions. Normally, this annoys me. Here, it feels more like he is empowering his readers with the knowledge to make informed decisions. That, I do appreciate.
I’ve already bought several copies of this book and given them as gifts. Cannot recommend this book enough.
The greatest strength, though, is in the book’s framework approach to criminal justice reform. Martens imparts a lot of information on the criminal legal system. He also speaks authoritatively on what principles we should hold in terms of evaluating the legal system. However, he doesn’t advocate specific policy decisions. Normally, this annoys me. Here, it feels more like he is empowering his readers with the knowledge to make informed decisions. That, I do appreciate.
I’ve already bought several copies of this book and given them as gifts. Cannot recommend this book enough.
Read
July 15, 2024This book was hardcore. I feel like I just took a law school class for non-lawyers, and I soaked in what I could. It's well-written and not difficult to understand, but it's a lot.
Matthew T Martens has a 25 year-long career in criminal law, as well as being a seminary graduate. He clearly knows his stuff.
I underlined a lot in this book, but I guess I might summarize it by saying that he scrutinizes what it mean to actually love your neighbor as yourself.
I learned a ton--about things I know very little besides the basics: plea bargaining, jury selection, due process, sentencing, impartiality, proportionality, evidence, the impact of race, the role of history.
It's a bit daunting. It took me a while to read it, but I'd recommend it for Christians, for those interested in criminal justice (he's entirely digestible for non-religious folks), and those interested in weird Netflix criminal justice docs.
January 6, 2024
The American leadership system comprises three branches that counterbalance one another: The Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial branches of government. This ingenious system of government was first drawn up by the framers during the Declaration of Independence. Most people would have taken sides in the oft-divisive decisions taken by the first two branches. On a relative scale, the legal system seems to be the last branch standing when it comes to having a fair and just society. The Executive and the Congress frame the laws. The judicial system enforces the laws of the land. By definition, the American criminal justice system is essentially about "state-sponsored violence." This is because the state is legally empowered to inflict physical punishment on lawbreakers. While most of the time the punishment is legitimate, there are times in which injustice happens. As far as the law is concerned, justice means enforcing the laws of the land. The highest court of the country is the Supreme Court. As far as the Word of God is concerned, the highest order is love. This book is essentially about how the imperfect and flawed American criminal justice system can be reformed from this biblical perspective. Such flaws include the "us-versus-them" mentality that leads to societal divisions, the presumed "law and order" which could be overly subjective for comfort, and the infusion of political concerns into the practice of laws. Written in two parts, author Matthew Martens aims to "fashion a criminal justice system more in line with biblical teaching." Part One looks at what a biblical justice system looks like where Martens sketches out the contours of Christian ethic of justice. The first thing he does is to blur the lines of "social justice" and "criminal justice" to put them under the umbrella of redemption: of forgiven past and present love. This is what the gospel is about: Salvation and Transformation. Social justice is not about how the world sees it but how God sees it, which is justice in society for both individuals and communities. Justified people act and behave justly. Martens uses the just-war analogy to inform the use of criminal justice. He raises the question of who are our neighbours by raising the five pillars of biblical justice: Accuracy, Due Process, Accountability, Impartiality, and Proportionality. Accuracy means justice must be measured precisely. "Due Process" means procedural fairness using the all-reasonable-means test. Accountability means any form of injustice needs to be properly compensated. Martens warns that laws themselves can be immoral. He warns of 9 ways where injustice can happen under the pretext of just following the law. Impartiality means learning to let Truth prevail without discrimination of any kind. Proportionality means any form of punishment must fit the crime.
Part Two looks at the present American Criminal Justice system where the author proposes certain improvements. Before passing judgment, readers get to learn about the history of the justice system. We learn about the differences between crime, breaking the law, and immorality. Many things are often not clear-cut black and white. This calls for wisdom and discernment which should form a big part of "prosecutorial discretion." Christians should be constantly comparing and contrasting the legal definition of a crime and moral considerations. Martens applies various aspects of the five pillars of biblical justice to the various forms of American justice: Plea Bargaining, Jury Selection, Judges, Assistance of Counsel, Exculpatory Evidence, Witnesses, Sentencing, Death Penalty, etc. "Plea bargaining" can be flawed as lawyers often pressure people into pleading guilty for expediency instead of Truth. On Jury Selection, juries must not just protect against lawlessness, they need to be vigilant against "callousness." Judges are human too, and so the test of impartiality is crucial. "Assistance of Counsel" ensures that everyone has a right to an attorney, even when they cannot afford one. "Exculpatory Evidence" means the obligation to seek truth regardless of which side one is on. On the death penalty, Martens had a change of heart from a "full-throated supporter" to a crusader against it.
My Thoughts
==============
I ask myself: "What did the author do well in this book?" My first thought is an appreciation for the detailed look into the world of American Criminal Justice. Many of us have been influenced by the courtroom scenes portrayed on TV such as "Blue Bloods," "Ally McBeal," "Law and Order," "Suits," and movies like "A Few Good Men," "Jack Reacher," "Just Mercy," etc. None of them has the comprehensiveness of this book. For non-American readers, the justice system might seem a little foreign. However, the principles can be applied in all cultures. This is where the five pillars of biblical justice apply. Many of them can be adapted for legal systems throughout the world. Using the examples of how biblical justice can be applied to the American system, the rest of the world can do the same to their own national systems. While those with some legal training would benefit most, that does not mean the rest of us cannot learn a thing or two. In fact, just like the rationale for using jury systems, sometimes inviting non-professional individuals helps make the justice system more inclusive.
Secondly, Martens reminds us that no justice system is perfect. That is why the title of the book is significant: "Reforming Criminal Justice." There are many flaws in the existing systems. As long as the powers-to-be are open to reasonable changes, there is hope for a better legal system for future generations. For the uninitiated, Marten's four suggestions on what we can do will be most helpful. "Think different," "Speak different," "Work different," and "Vote different" are ways in which we can all play our part. They are listed in increasing levels of pressure. Even though changing any institutional system is difficult or seemingly impossible, as long as we keep trying, there is a chance.
Finally, from a pastoral perspective, dealing with justice is just one side of the coin. Injustice is the other side. The root of all forms of reformation has to be redemptive love. For all the elaborate laws and legal procedures, many flaws could derail the recognition of Truth and the exercise of justice. By showing us the different processes and entities in the legal system, Martens explains the many facets of the practice of law from history to the contemporary era to give us space to explore ways how to improve them. Love is not just the future but needs to be very much present. Just because something is legal does not mean it is ethical. Just because something is lawful does not mean it is beneficial.
A word of caution: The present system might very well be the best we have today. We should not jettison everything simply because of their inherent flaws or imperfections. An imperfect system is better than no system at all. Do not throw the baby (legal systems) out with the bathwater of flaws. The single biggest reason to read this book is essentially on how we can think and behave Christianly when dealing with the legal systems in our society.
Matthew T. Martens (JD, University of North Carolina School of Law; MABS, Dallas Theological Seminary) is a trial lawyer and partner at an international law firm in Washington, DC. He has spent the bulk of his more than twenty-five-year legal career practicing criminal law both as a federal prosecutor and as a defense attorney. He served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist at the US Supreme Court and also as a political appointee in the criminal division of the US Justice Department under Attorney General Ashcroft. Matt and his wife are members at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and have two sons and a daughter.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5.
conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Crossway Publishers via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.
Part Two looks at the present American Criminal Justice system where the author proposes certain improvements. Before passing judgment, readers get to learn about the history of the justice system. We learn about the differences between crime, breaking the law, and immorality. Many things are often not clear-cut black and white. This calls for wisdom and discernment which should form a big part of "prosecutorial discretion." Christians should be constantly comparing and contrasting the legal definition of a crime and moral considerations. Martens applies various aspects of the five pillars of biblical justice to the various forms of American justice: Plea Bargaining, Jury Selection, Judges, Assistance of Counsel, Exculpatory Evidence, Witnesses, Sentencing, Death Penalty, etc. "Plea bargaining" can be flawed as lawyers often pressure people into pleading guilty for expediency instead of Truth. On Jury Selection, juries must not just protect against lawlessness, they need to be vigilant against "callousness." Judges are human too, and so the test of impartiality is crucial. "Assistance of Counsel" ensures that everyone has a right to an attorney, even when they cannot afford one. "Exculpatory Evidence" means the obligation to seek truth regardless of which side one is on. On the death penalty, Martens had a change of heart from a "full-throated supporter" to a crusader against it.
My Thoughts
==============
I ask myself: "What did the author do well in this book?" My first thought is an appreciation for the detailed look into the world of American Criminal Justice. Many of us have been influenced by the courtroom scenes portrayed on TV such as "Blue Bloods," "Ally McBeal," "Law and Order," "Suits," and movies like "A Few Good Men," "Jack Reacher," "Just Mercy," etc. None of them has the comprehensiveness of this book. For non-American readers, the justice system might seem a little foreign. However, the principles can be applied in all cultures. This is where the five pillars of biblical justice apply. Many of them can be adapted for legal systems throughout the world. Using the examples of how biblical justice can be applied to the American system, the rest of the world can do the same to their own national systems. While those with some legal training would benefit most, that does not mean the rest of us cannot learn a thing or two. In fact, just like the rationale for using jury systems, sometimes inviting non-professional individuals helps make the justice system more inclusive.
Secondly, Martens reminds us that no justice system is perfect. That is why the title of the book is significant: "Reforming Criminal Justice." There are many flaws in the existing systems. As long as the powers-to-be are open to reasonable changes, there is hope for a better legal system for future generations. For the uninitiated, Marten's four suggestions on what we can do will be most helpful. "Think different," "Speak different," "Work different," and "Vote different" are ways in which we can all play our part. They are listed in increasing levels of pressure. Even though changing any institutional system is difficult or seemingly impossible, as long as we keep trying, there is a chance.
Finally, from a pastoral perspective, dealing with justice is just one side of the coin. Injustice is the other side. The root of all forms of reformation has to be redemptive love. For all the elaborate laws and legal procedures, many flaws could derail the recognition of Truth and the exercise of justice. By showing us the different processes and entities in the legal system, Martens explains the many facets of the practice of law from history to the contemporary era to give us space to explore ways how to improve them. Love is not just the future but needs to be very much present. Just because something is legal does not mean it is ethical. Just because something is lawful does not mean it is beneficial.
A word of caution: The present system might very well be the best we have today. We should not jettison everything simply because of their inherent flaws or imperfections. An imperfect system is better than no system at all. Do not throw the baby (legal systems) out with the bathwater of flaws. The single biggest reason to read this book is essentially on how we can think and behave Christianly when dealing with the legal systems in our society.
Matthew T. Martens (JD, University of North Carolina School of Law; MABS, Dallas Theological Seminary) is a trial lawyer and partner at an international law firm in Washington, DC. He has spent the bulk of his more than twenty-five-year legal career practicing criminal law both as a federal prosecutor and as a defense attorney. He served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist at the US Supreme Court and also as a political appointee in the criminal division of the US Justice Department under Attorney General Ashcroft. Matt and his wife are members at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and have two sons and a daughter.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5.
conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Crossway Publishers via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.
May 3, 2024
I am 4.5/5 on this book.
I have been a prison volunteer and program director since 2007, an occasional justice advocate since running a successful online petition for an exoneration in 2016. (I have a current online petition advocating for treating a juvenile defendant as a juvenile instead of as an adult.)
Martens identifies and discusses a number of weaknesses in the American criminal justice system, emphasizing how they should concern professing evangelical Christians. Evangelical Christians are his primary targeted audience. Sometimes his arguments might not really compel non-evangelicals, but so what, if he persuades his tribe towards much more love and mercy. The first half of the book lays out principles Martens argues are basic for Christian thinking about criminal justice, such as accuracy, impartiality, proportionality, and accountability. The second half of the examines the justice process from creating a law through processing a defendant to sentencing a convicted person. Every step of the way is fraught with the potential for injustice, and Martens compellingly insists that an unjust result is a failure to love as Christ requires. While Martens writes for Christians, criminal justice reform advocates will likely be able to affirm most of the analysis and criticism Martens offers.
I have a few minor quibbles. Early in the book Martens states that he is pro-life on the issue of abortion. I wish he would say explicitly what his argument implies, that being pro-life requires being pro the lives of people caught up in the justice system. It's a point he could make several times (for example, when he discusses the Supreme Court case Herrera v Collins).
In his use of the Bible, there are a few passages and opportunities he misses. I have often thought that the story of Zaccheus shows Christ's love for a disfavored thief, and the proportionality of Zaccheus's repayments to his victims. Because of his evangelical audience, I think he should anticipate some readers' potential argument that Hell shows Christ in favor of toughness on crime. In his chapter on action steps, why not mention the position of visiting the prisoners in Matthew 25? We can aid criminal justice in proximity even with those who may be justly incarcerated.
While I have these quibbles, I hope evangelicals and other readers will read, be challenged by, and embrace the recommendations of this book.
I have been a prison volunteer and program director since 2007, an occasional justice advocate since running a successful online petition for an exoneration in 2016. (I have a current online petition advocating for treating a juvenile defendant as a juvenile instead of as an adult.)
Martens identifies and discusses a number of weaknesses in the American criminal justice system, emphasizing how they should concern professing evangelical Christians. Evangelical Christians are his primary targeted audience. Sometimes his arguments might not really compel non-evangelicals, but so what, if he persuades his tribe towards much more love and mercy. The first half of the book lays out principles Martens argues are basic for Christian thinking about criminal justice, such as accuracy, impartiality, proportionality, and accountability. The second half of the examines the justice process from creating a law through processing a defendant to sentencing a convicted person. Every step of the way is fraught with the potential for injustice, and Martens compellingly insists that an unjust result is a failure to love as Christ requires. While Martens writes for Christians, criminal justice reform advocates will likely be able to affirm most of the analysis and criticism Martens offers.
I have a few minor quibbles. Early in the book Martens states that he is pro-life on the issue of abortion. I wish he would say explicitly what his argument implies, that being pro-life requires being pro the lives of people caught up in the justice system. It's a point he could make several times (for example, when he discusses the Supreme Court case Herrera v Collins).
In his use of the Bible, there are a few passages and opportunities he misses. I have often thought that the story of Zaccheus shows Christ's love for a disfavored thief, and the proportionality of Zaccheus's repayments to his victims. Because of his evangelical audience, I think he should anticipate some readers' potential argument that Hell shows Christ in favor of toughness on crime. In his chapter on action steps, why not mention the position of visiting the prisoners in Matthew 25? We can aid criminal justice in proximity even with those who may be justly incarcerated.
While I have these quibbles, I hope evangelicals and other readers will read, be challenged by, and embrace the recommendations of this book.
March 17, 2025
Marten writes this book as a lawyer who has served as clerk of the US Supreme Court, a prosecuting and defense lawyer, and also as a seminary graduate.
Marten pursued his seminary degree because of his experience in the legal system to attempt to design the justice system from a true Christian perspective.
His basic approach is that any just legal system must reflect Jesus' command to love our neighbor as ourself, and that that principal must be reflected in the way it treats the victim and the criminal, the accused and the accuser.
He spends much time looking at how the US justice system has moved to a system that appeals to a public concerned about the appearance of being tough on crime instead of one that also considers what would express love for the offender and his family.
One of his observations is the use of plea bargains as a time saving method. Rather than seeking appropriate punishment, plea bargains instead work by exaggerating the harm done to a victim and using the threat of crippling sentencing to inducing a guilty plea to a crime the person may not have even committed. It the face of devastating penalties some plea guily to a lesser charge even if not guilty.
He acknowledges that the issues involved are highly complex and are so embedded as to seem overwhelming to change.
He suggests that for most of us, the most effective place we can start in election of attorney generals that state they are committed to justice for both the victim and the accused. He admits that those will be rare.
He also notes that the complexity of judging what is the best loving solution for both the victim and accuser is vexing. But he insists we should try.
He proposes the following question as we do that work:
"Is this the justice system you would design if you did not know in advance which of the systems two neighbors you would be?
He then points out 'Only when the answer is 'yes' have we designed a system that loves both victim and accused as ourselves.'
Martens has written one of the most thought-provoking books I have read for quite a while.
Anyone who is interested in advocating for a more just system of laws or being a legislator would be well served by reading this book and putting into practice the ideas Marten pursues to love each of our neighbors caught in the justice system.
Marten pursued his seminary degree because of his experience in the legal system to attempt to design the justice system from a true Christian perspective.
His basic approach is that any just legal system must reflect Jesus' command to love our neighbor as ourself, and that that principal must be reflected in the way it treats the victim and the criminal, the accused and the accuser.
He spends much time looking at how the US justice system has moved to a system that appeals to a public concerned about the appearance of being tough on crime instead of one that also considers what would express love for the offender and his family.
One of his observations is the use of plea bargains as a time saving method. Rather than seeking appropriate punishment, plea bargains instead work by exaggerating the harm done to a victim and using the threat of crippling sentencing to inducing a guilty plea to a crime the person may not have even committed. It the face of devastating penalties some plea guily to a lesser charge even if not guilty.
He acknowledges that the issues involved are highly complex and are so embedded as to seem overwhelming to change.
He suggests that for most of us, the most effective place we can start in election of attorney generals that state they are committed to justice for both the victim and the accused. He admits that those will be rare.
He also notes that the complexity of judging what is the best loving solution for both the victim and accuser is vexing. But he insists we should try.
He proposes the following question as we do that work:
"Is this the justice system you would design if you did not know in advance which of the systems two neighbors you would be?
He then points out 'Only when the answer is 'yes' have we designed a system that loves both victim and accused as ourselves.'
Martens has written one of the most thought-provoking books I have read for quite a while.
Anyone who is interested in advocating for a more just system of laws or being a legislator would be well served by reading this book and putting into practice the ideas Marten pursues to love each of our neighbors caught in the justice system.
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