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"Ready for the People": My Most Chilling Cases as a Prosecutor
A veteran female prosecutor goes behind the scenes of the Los Angeles criminal justice system to provide a detailed account of three of the most difficult and terrifying cases she encountered during her twenty-five years as a prosecutor. 20,000 first printing.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 7, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 23, 2023
The pros of this book: It's very readable. It's fast. It'll give you a good overview of how a case is handled in the DA's office, from the initial arrest through pretrial, trial or plea bargaining, and sentencing.
The major con is that the author is unbearable. She's everyone's favorite prosecutor, of course, by her own telling. Except when she's not—but those individuals are fat and lazy, so it's fine. When recounting dialogue from twenty-five years ago, she reports that she was reciting the Buddha while the others stand around in awe. And naturally, nothing ever surprises her in court: she always has a bad feeling before something bad happens and she never, ever makes a mistake.
But above all, she just reads as unkind, full of rude snide comments. I'll give you an example from early in the book. The case is one of rape and attempted murder. Two 17-year-old girls were brutally raped for hours before being hog-tied and left in a burning house, only escaping by the skin of their teeth. The author is speaking to them that same day — they're traumatized, brutalized, barely out of the hospital.
One of the girls says "Fuck" as an exclamation twice. First in response to the author goggling at her brutalized appearance, the second when she's told she's not even allowed to discuss the case with her fellow victim. The author, snidely, writes: "I was starting to wonder if that was the extent of her vocabulary." Later, the author refers to these girls as "junkies" for their drug use.
The book is just full of these unnecessary and dismissive comments. The author both tries to portray herself as ~~deeply empathetic~~ while simultaneously revealing her own lack of normal human empathy. The result is a book that confirms a lot of stereotypes about prosecutors as arrogant and unsympathetic figures.
The major con is that the author is unbearable. She's everyone's favorite prosecutor, of course, by her own telling. Except when she's not—but those individuals are fat and lazy, so it's fine. When recounting dialogue from twenty-five years ago, she reports that she was reciting the Buddha while the others stand around in awe. And naturally, nothing ever surprises her in court: she always has a bad feeling before something bad happens and she never, ever makes a mistake.
But above all, she just reads as unkind, full of rude snide comments. I'll give you an example from early in the book. The case is one of rape and attempted murder. Two 17-year-old girls were brutally raped for hours before being hog-tied and left in a burning house, only escaping by the skin of their teeth. The author is speaking to them that same day — they're traumatized, brutalized, barely out of the hospital.
One of the girls says "Fuck" as an exclamation twice. First in response to the author goggling at her brutalized appearance, the second when she's told she's not even allowed to discuss the case with her fellow victim. The author, snidely, writes: "I was starting to wonder if that was the extent of her vocabulary." Later, the author refers to these girls as "junkies" for their drug use.
The book is just full of these unnecessary and dismissive comments. The author both tries to portray herself as ~~deeply empathetic~~ while simultaneously revealing her own lack of normal human empathy. The result is a book that confirms a lot of stereotypes about prosecutors as arrogant and unsympathetic figures.
December 3, 2018
True Crime Story
This is a very interesting book. I was not expecting the author to be so honest. That is, I did not expect her to show the judges to be so biased or that she would write stories about cases she lost. These stories have a great deal of information about the law and should be read by every DA
This is a very interesting book. I was not expecting the author to be so honest. That is, I did not expect her to show the judges to be so biased or that she would write stories about cases she lost. These stories have a great deal of information about the law and should be read by every DA
January 16, 2016
A collection of one prosecutor's most disturbing cases. It's hard to pick out which one is the worst -- each case is truly sickening and makes you wonder about the future of the human race. The author mercifully makes a point of showing the reader how decent and even heroic some people are in the face of unbelievable cruelty and horror. Well worth a read. If you can take it.
January 2, 2016
OK enough. I still wonder how the writer could be Buddhist and argue that much.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews