Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America by Clive Stafford-Smith

Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America by Clive Stafford-Smith
Buy Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America by Clive Stafford-Smith at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Politics and Society
Reviewer: Keith Dudhnath
Summary: A powerful look at injustice, focussing on one specific miscarriage of justice, as well as the wider issues facing the American and British legal systems. It's an inspiring read that everyone should take the time to investigate.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 400	Date: July 2012
Publisher: Harvill Secker
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1846556258
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On 16 October 1986, Derrick and Duane Moo Young were shot and killed, in Miami. British businessman Kris Maharaj was arrested, and in 1987 he was convicted of their murders and sentenced to death. His defence lawyer, Eric Hendon, took the unusual line of offering no defence at all - when it came time to present his case, he simply rested. Kris protested his innocence throughout, and continues to do so to this day. Despite weighty evidence in support of this, he still languishes in prison 26 years later.

Clive Stafford-Smith took up the mantle of appeals. Injustice takes us through these appeals, looks at what went wrong in the original trial, and looks at the failings in both the US and British systems. His wealth of experience working and campaigning for death row prisoners brings important, fascinating and powerful insights for everyone.

Injustice is smartly written. It opens with the prosecution case, and then Stafford-Smith mounts the defence that Maharaj should have had all those years ago. We're taken through alibis, witnesses, judicial corruption, alternative suspects, unreliable 'experts, misrepresentation of evidence, and indeed missing evidence. It all adds up to plenty of doubt over the original conviction, and massive injustice.

Injustice fills the reader with heartbreak, empathy, anger and passion, as well as an unusual mix of fear and guilty relief that their lives haven't been wrenched away from them by such a miscarriage of justice. What extends Injustice beyond being a straightforward campaigning book is the powerful humanity woven throughout. Issues facing a huge number of death row prisoners and lifers, both guilty and innocent, are fleshed out through empathetic examples, stemming from an unique point of view. It's, of course, respectful to the victims and their families throughout. It's not brash polemic, nor is it naively woolly. It's a strong and powerful read, that everyone should take the time to investigate.

Highly recommended.

Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman is a fictional retelling of another miscarriage of justice, as is Arthur and George by Julian Barnes. Both are well worth reading.

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