Angela Landa

Exactly what to expect from a non-practicing academic

Revisado: 04-24-22

I was assigned to read this for a class and really TRIED to go into it with an open mind, but she started out with a story about how unreasonable to her it seemed that a defendant would plead guilty and serve 10 years for a murder he didn’t do. I interned at an innocence project and a simple Google search of their work would show that this is a reality. She ends the book talking about this same defendant and that she went to go ask him if he regretted it- fully expecting him to say yes. He did not and she asked him 3 times because she wanted the perfect quote to encapsulate her book. One of these times being after he told her that he didn’t want to dwell on the past and had come to peace with it. This cruel disregard for the realities of those brought into the criminal legal system is what you can expect from this book.
To be fair, there were several ideas that I thought were good suggestions. Bail reform and the two prosecutors she discussed towards the end of the chapter prior to the conclusion. However, the author simply could not fathom/adjust her hypothesis: trials is the constitutional right guaranteed and trials disrupt that. Even though she was unable to explain how a trial guarantees more Justice when we take into account jury biases, underfunded public defenders representing, unfair judges, etc. She recognized the ideas by progressive prosecutors dismissing and presenting fair pleas as the best idea, but just could not actually adjust the narrative in the end.
Lastly, just like not good writing in general. Her writing makes me believe she came into this with stories she wanted to share and was never able to actually figure out how they fit/affected the system so she just threw them in anyways. Example being the girl that got a deferred sentence but no one (the author included because she didn’t know what it is and didn’t. Take time to find out for defendant) explained what that meant to the defendant and it was a very good outcome but if the defendant violated the deferred sentencing she would be sentenced. I fully expected a story where the girl was negatively impacted by getting a deferred sentence but the author just shared the story…. Just because? No actual pros or cons attached to her personal narrative.
If you want to know best about what punishment without trial defendants in our country have, read The New Jim Crow, follow a public defender on Twitter, or just talk to someone that agreed to an unfair plea they took- all are more credible than this book.

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