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“For readers seeking to top up their outrage about abuses in criminal justice, this book makes a fine companion to Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and Emily Bazelon’s Charged. . . . A stellar—and often shocking—report on a broken criminal justice system.”
– Kirkus, Starred Review
Within the past thirty years, more than 2,800 innocent American prisoners – their combined sentences surpassing 25,000 years – have been exonerated and freed after being condemned for crimes they did not commit. This number represents only a small fraction of the real number of persons wrongfully accused and convicted over the same period.
Renowned criminal defense and civil rights attorney David Rudolf has spent decades defending the wrongfully accused. In American Injustice, he draws from his years of experience in the American criminal legal system to shed light on the misconduct that exists at all levels of law enforcement and the tragic consequences that follow in its wake. Tracing these themes through the lens of some of his most important cases – including new details from the Michael Peterson trial made famous in the Netflix docuseries The Staircase – Rudolf takes the reader inside crime scenes to examine forensic evidence left by perpetrators; revisits unsolved murders to detail how and why the true culprits were never prosecuted; reveals how confirmation bias leads police and prosecutors to employ tactics that make wrongful arrests and prosecutions more likely; and exposes how poverty and racism fundamentally distort the system.
In American Injustice, Rudolf gives a voice to those who have been the victim of wrongful accusations and shows in the starkest terms the human impact of legal wrongdoing. Effortlessly blending gripping true crime reporting and searing observations on civil rights in America, American Injustice takes readers behind the scenes of a justice system in desperate need of reform.
For book queries, please contact:
Michael V Carlisle
InkWell Management, LLC
michael@inkwellmagement.com
For media inquiries, please contact:
Kelly Shi
HarperCollins Publishers
kelly.shi@harpercollins.com
Within the past thirty years, more than 2,800 innocent American prisoners – their combined sentences surpassing 25,000 years – have been exonerated and freed after being condemned for crimes they did not commit. This number represents only a small fraction of the real number of persons wrongfully accused and convicted over the same period.
Renowned criminal defense and civil rights attorney David Rudolf has spent decades defending the wrongfully accused. In American Injustice, he draws from his years of experience in the American criminal legal system to shed light on the misconduct that exists at all levels of law enforcement and the tragic consequences that follow in its wake. Tracing these themes through the lens of some of his most important cases – including new details from the Michael Peterson trial made famous in the Netflix docuseries The Staircase – Rudolf takes the reader inside crime scenes to examine forensic evidence left by perpetrators; revisits unsolved murders to detail how and why the true culprits were never prosecuted; reveals how confirmation bias leads police and prosecutors to employ tactics that make wrongful arrests and prosecutions more likely; and exposes how poverty and racism fundamentally distort the system.
In American Injustice, Rudolf gives a voice to those who have been the victim of wrongful accusations and shows in the starkest terms the human impact of legal wrongdoing. Effortlessly blending gripping true crime reporting and searing observations on civil rights in America, American Injustice takes readers behind the scenes of a justice system in desperate need of reform.
For book queries, please contact:
Michael V Carlisle
InkWell Management, LLC
michael@inkwellmagement.com
For media inquiries, please contact:
Kelly Shi
HarperCollins Publishers
kelly.shi@harpercollins.com
“For readers seeking to top up their outrage about abuses in criminal justice, this book makes a fine companion to Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and Emily Bazelon’s Charged. . . . A stellar—and often shocking—report on a broken criminal justice system.”
– Kirkus, Starred Review