Raymond Bonner: Author
Photo: Hazel Thompson, Random House
The Color of Justice by
Comprehensive and balanced, THE COLOR OF JUSTICE is the definitive book on current research and theories of racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination within America's criminal justice system. The authors synthesize the best and the most recent research on patterns of criminal behavior and victimization, police practices, court processing and sentencing, the death penalty, and correctional programs giving your students the facts and theoretical foundation they need to make their own informed decisions about discrimination in the system. Uniquely unbiased, THE COLOR OF JUSTICE makes every effort to incorporate discussion of all major race groups found in the United States.
Convicting the Innocent by
DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free. In this unsettling analysis, Garrett examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 people exonerated by DNA testing, and proposes systemic reforms.
Debating the Death Penalty : Should America Have Capital Punishment? the Experts on Both Sides Make Their Best Case by
Experts on both side of the issue--including Paul Cassell, Alexander Kozinski, Louis Pojman, Stephen Bright, Hugo Bedau, Bryan Stevenson, Joshua Marquis, and Governor George Ryan--speak out both for and against capital punishment and the rationale behind their individual beliefs.
Ethics and Accountability in Criminal Justice by
Summary This book is designed to meet head on the urgent need for academics, advocates and policymakers to develop universal ethical standards in criminal justice practice. By using quality research and policy analysis focusing on the core components of the criminal justice system -- police, courts and corrections-- Professor Prenzler formulates a basic checklist that can be used to assess the ethical quality and accountability of the criminal justice system in any jurisdiction.
Contents Front cover; Preface; Contents; Chapter 1: Ethics and Accountability in the Public Sector and Criminal Justice System; SECTION ONE -- Police; Chapter 2: Police Ethics; Chapter 3: Police Corruption and Misconduct; Chapter 4: Police Integrity Management and Accountability; SECTION TWO -- Courts; Chapter 5: Ethical Issues in Criminal Law; Chapter 6: Misconduct and Miscarriages of Justice in the Criminal Courts; Chapter 7: Integrity Management and Accountability in the Criminal Courts; SECTION THREE -- Corrections; Chapter 8: Ethical Issues in Corrections; Chapter 9: Abuses in Corrections.
Chapter 10: Integrity Management and Accountability in Corrections
Innocent by
Innocent graphically documents forty-two recent criminal cases to find evidence of shocking miscarriages of justice, especially in murder cases. Based upon interviews with more than 200 people and reviews of hundreds internal case files, court records, smoking-gun memoranda, and other documents, Scott Christianson gets inside the legal cases, revealing the mistakes, abuses, and underlying factors that led to miscarriages of justice, while also describing how determined prisoners, post-conviction attorneys, advocates, and journalists struggle against tremendous odds to try to win their exonerations. The result is a powerful work that recounts the human costs of a criminal justice system gone awry, and shows us how wrongful convictions can—and do—happen everywhere.
Justice and Science by
Databases of both convicted offenders and no-suspect cases demonstrate the power of DNA testing to solve the unsolvable. George "Woody" Clarke is a leading authority in legal circles and among the news media because of his expertise in DNA evidence. In this memoir, Clarke chronicles his experiences in some of the most disturbing and notorious sexual assault and murder court cases in California. He charts the beginnings of DNA testing in police investigations and the fight for its acceptance by courts and juries. He illustrates the power of science in cases he personally prosecuted or in which he assisted, including his work with the prosecution team in the trial of O. J. Simpson. Clarke also covers cases where DNA evidence was used to exonerate. He directed a special project in San Diego County, proactively examining over six hundred cases of defendants convicted and sentenced to prison before 1993, with the goal of finding instances in which DNA typing might add new evidence and then offered testing to those inmates. As Clarke tells the story of how he came to understand and use this new form of evidence, readers will develop a new appreciation for the role of science in the legal system.
A Lesson Before Dying by 
Life after Death Row by
Life after Death Row examines the post-incarceration struggles of individuals who have been wrongly convicted of capital crimes, sentenced to death, and subsequently exonerated. Saundra D. Westervelt and Kimberly J. Cook present eighteen exonerees' stories, focusing on three central areas: the invisibility of the innocent after release, the complicity of the justice system in that invisibility, and personal trauma management. Contrary to popular belief, exonerees are not automatically compensated by the state or provided adequate assistance in the transition to post-prison life. With no time and little support, many struggle to find homes, financial security, and community. They have limited or obsolete employment skills and difficulty managing such daily tasks as grocery shopping or banking. They struggle to regain independence, self-sufficiency, and identity. Drawing upon research on trauma, recovery, coping, and stigma, the authors weave a nuanced fabric of grief, loss, resilience, hope, and meaning to provide the richest account to date of the struggles faced by people striving to reclaim their lives after years of wrongful incarceration.
A Life for a Life by
Providing a new look at the intense public debate surrounding the death penalty in the United States, this book explores the various trends in public opinion that influence crime prevention efforts, create public policy, and reform criminal law. It examines eight core issues about the use of execution: cruel and unusual punishment, discrimination, deterrence, due process, culpability, scripture, innocence, and justice. It provides a brief history of capital punishment in the United States from the earliest known execution at the Jamestown Colony in 1608 to executions occurring as recently as 2008. Additional topics include the regionalization of capital punishment sentences, the spiritual and scriptural debate over the death penalty, the role of DNA evidence in modern execution sentences, and the ongoing effects of Furman v. Georgia, McClesky v. Kemp, Baze v. Rees, and other related court rulings.
Littlejohn's South Carolina Judicial History by
The early years: As it was in 1930 -- Criminal practices in early days -- Judges' retirement -- The new Supreme Court building of 1971 -- Courthouse and courtrooms facilities -- Oath of office -- The dock -- Changes in criminal procedure -- Circuit courts -- Judges' work in capital cases -- The judges ride circuit -- The Supreme Court's personnel -- A judiciary in transition: The South Carolina Judicial Council -- Post-conviction relief cases -- The courts' sentences -- Changes--1930 to 2004 -- Everything changes -- Workers' compensation -- Demonstrative evidence at the Washington Street Theatre -- Bastions of the status quo -- Judge elected--by a landslide -- Resignations -- A miserable marathon -- Judges' and lawyers' education -- The South Carolina Judicial Conference -- Unified court system -- Assault on judicial reform -- Women: judges, lawyers and jurors -- Modern Court: Family courts and divorces -- The Chief Justice Lewis administration -- Election of judges and magistrates -- The judiciary and the bar -- Appellate arbitration -- The Supreme Court's unusual chore -- Supreme Court turns cert -- The South Carolina Court of Appeals -- Master-in-equity courts -- Probate courts -- Lawyer competency -- Specialization in South Carolina -- Judges and politics -- Judges and the University of South Carolina School of Law -- Prayer in court -- Sentencing guidlines -- Rule making -- Supreme Court opinions -- Judge, Associate Justice and Chief Justice Ness -- Growth of Judiciary -- Wofford College and the law -- Technology arrives -- The future.
Punishment in America by 
Race, Gender, and Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System by
Thompson analyzes the process through which criminal responsibility is constructed and reproduced on the basis of race and gender. While feminist literature points to constructions of female offenders as mad and male offenders as bad, overall the results of this research do not support this perspective. Instead, major findings include strong and consistent evidence that African American defendants are less likely to receive psychiatric evaluations to determine mental status at the time of the offense. This implies that criminal justice officials have racial perceptions about the causes of crime; consequently, African American defendants may be portrayed as normal criminals who are held to a different level of responsibility than non-African Americans.
The Social Contexts of Criminal Sentencing by
Historically, the announcement and invocation of criminal penalties were public spectacles. Today, fear of crime and disaffection with the criminal justice system guarantee that this public fascination with punishment continues. In the past decade, virtually every legislature in the country has undertaken sentencing reform, in the hope that public concern with crime would be allayed and dispari ties in criminal sentences would be reduced if not eliminated. Scholars have intensified their longstanding preoccupation with discrimination and the sources of disparate treatment during sentencing - issues that continue to fuel contem porary reform efforts. As documented in Chapter 1, empirical research on sen tencing has concentrated much of its attention on the offender. Only recently have attempts been made to imbed sentencing in its broader organizational and social contexts. Our study extends these attempts by quantitatively analyzing the relationship between the offender and the social contexts in which he or she is sentenced. We use data on felony sentencing in Georgia between 1976 and 1985 to ask three questions. The first addresses an issue of perennial concern: during sentencing, how important are offender attributes, both those of explicit legal relevance and traits whose legal relevance is questionable or nonexistent? The second question directs attention to the social contexts of sentencing and asks whether they directly affect sentencing outcomes.
Surviving Justice by
On September 30, 2003, Calvin was declared innocent and set free from Angola State Prison, after serving 22 years for a crime he did not commit. Like many other exonerees, Calvin experienced a new world that was not open to him. Hitting the streets without housing, money, or a change of clothes, exonerees across America are released only to fend for themselves. In the tradition of Studs Terkel's oral histories, this book collects the voices and stories of the exonerees for whom life --inside and out -- is forever framed by extraordinary injustice
Truth Machine by
DNA profiling—commonly known as DNA fingerprinting—is often heralded as unassailable criminal evidence, a veritable “truth machine” that can overturn convictions based on eyewitness testimony, confessions, and other forms of forensic evidence. But DNA evidence is far from infallible. Truth Machine traces the controversial history of DNA fingerprinting by looking at court cases in the United States and United Kingdom beginning in the mid-1980s, when the practice was invented, and continuing until the present. Ultimately, Truth Machine presents compelling evidence of the obstacles and opportunities at the intersection of science, technology, sociology, and law.
