Virtual Justice: The Flawed Prosecution of Crime in America

Description

Sensational trials obsessively televised and reported by news media have led many Americans to question the effectiveness of their criminal justice system. Do police have the laws they need—or the competence—to do their job? Can juries recognize the truth in the tangle of evidence presented to them? What do lawyers actually contribute to the quest for justice in the criminal court? In this fascinating book a distinguished legal authority examines the flaws, contradictions, and weaknesses in our American justice system. The gripping stories he tells about the investigation and trial of criminal cases reveal what's really going on and demonstrate how the system often fails to deliver true justice. H. Richard Uviller deftly covers major aspects of the criminal justice process, from the gathering of evidence, capture and custody, and eyewitness identification to plea bargaining, selecting the jury, and the role of the judge. He illuminates each aspect of the process by creating and then analyzing a scenario drawn from the daily business of the courtrooms of the nation, a scenario in which police or judges may find themselves frustrated or immobilized, often by the law itself. Uviller explains the legal quandaries that often bedevil the process and shows how decisions by the Supreme Court have relieved or aggravated perplexity. He concludes that the prohibitions limiting investigation, the pervasive combat mentality between defense and prosecution lawyers, and, in particular, the power vested in a random collection of ordinary people gathered together as a jury all contribute to a criminal justice system that produces virtual—rather than actual—justice. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Overview of the American Criminal Justice System 1. Virtual Legality In the Held: Fact Gathering at the Scene of the Crime 2. The Magical Moment of Arrest: Capture and Custody 3. The Marvelous Faculty of Recognition: Eyewitness Identification of a Suspect 4. The Exclusionary Rule: The Fabled Doctrine, Its Baleful Side Effects, and a Generally Ignored Technological Remedy 5. Stops of People and Vehicles: Some Radical Proposals to Get the Guns Off the Streets 6. Privacy and Privilege: Defeating Truth in the Name of Justice 7. The Right to Counsel: Dramatic, Deceitful, and Dilatory Assistance 8. Executive Discretion: Hard Choices and the Role of the Prosecutor 9. Plea Bargaining: Cheap Crimes, Costly Trials 10. Picking the Jury: Stacking the Randomly Drawn Panel 11. Character as a Guide to Conduct and Credibility: A Grotesque Structure Adorns the Legal Landscape 12. Of Witnesses and Jurors: A Tale of Confidence and Error 13. Jury Nullification: The Insanity Defense and Other Avoidances 14. The Judge: Promoting the Quest for Truth in the Adversary Mode Conclusion Index