Abby's review
Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse
by Steve Bogira
Abby's review
Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse by Steve Bogira
Abby's review
rating:
recommended for: Anyone interested in law, politics or social justice
Further proof that I cannot go into law or politics. This extremely insightful book follows one Chicago criminal courtroom over the course over a year, detailing several of the cases, big and small, that take place in Judge Locallo's courtroom. The author does a good job matter-of-factly describing everyone's roles in this broken system. He allows everyone (judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, defendants, witnesses, jury members, police officers, courthouse staff, etc.) to speak for themselves, describes what gets said/done in the courtrooms, but also describes evidence he has uncovered through review of documents or extra interviews...then lets the reader see and judge the discrepancies for herself. What a horribly, depressingly broken system whereby everyone in it (including the defendant) is incentivized for political, financial and personal reasons NOT to discover or publicize the truth of the crime. Ugh.
