Download PDF Broken Scales Reflections on Injustice Joel Cohen Dale J Degenshein 9781634258098 Books

Download As PDF : Broken Scales Reflections on Injustice Joel Cohen Dale J Degenshein 9781634258098 Books

However rare, some injustices are “objectively” determined, often through DNA evidence, which allows us to squarely establish innocence despite a conviction. But the stories selected for this book represent a cross-section some are such that (almost) every reader will see and acknowledge the wrong, and some interviews may leave the readers scratching his head, wondering “what was the author thinking?” By speaking with those impacted by injustices that occurred over the last 60 years––during the 1950s at the height of McCarthyism, the 1980s in Louisiana and New York when race played a large a role in how justice was dispensed and how the media portrayed the participants, the aftermath of 9/11 when many were prepared to believe the worst, and the time shortly before the Supreme Court decided that marriage could be granted to same-sex couples––this book requires readers to look at injustice in the context of our times.

The stories told by the participants themselves give the reader insight into the challenges of dispensing, and even commenting on, justice. The author asks difficult questions Is there an injustice when the game seems to have been played fairly, but the System still got it wrong? Is it an injustice when a jury, properly charged with the evidence fairly presented, convicts the wrong man? Or when people, so passionate in their own point of view, use over-the-top tactics to persuade others of their position? These interviews add to the important––and what must be ongoing––conversation about injustice in America

Download PDF Broken Scales Reflections on Injustice Joel Cohen Dale J Degenshein 9781634258098 Books

"These interviews powerfully drive home the ways in which our well designed ceiminal justice system remains vulnerable to error or worse and the life-destroying consequences those errors produce. Thought provoking and very lmpactful. Important reading
Publicus"

Product details Hardcover 288 pages Publisher American Bar Association (May 2, 2017) Language English ISBN-10 1634258096

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Broken Scales Reflections on Injustice Joel Cohen Dale J Degenshein 9781634258098 Books Reviews :

Broken Scales Reflections on Injustice Joel Cohen Dale J Degenshein 9781634258098 Books Reviews

• Ten cases - recounted engagingly, faithful to the transcripts of the interviews conducted with the respective major players. An interesting read - had these been fictional accounts. But these were cases of injustice that impacted people’s lives in significant ways, and for this reason it was difficult for me to read them.
  
  Any system of justice necessarily will have imperfections - there is no system that is even asymptotic to perfection. I focus on one specific case, a capital one in which Glenn Ford was convicted, to give you a sense of how Cohen through his incisive interviews captures the essence of these cases. He might not have gone to death row if not for the fact that, for example, as the prosecutor asserted in Cohen’s interview of him “the lawyers he had were not experienced in the field of criminal law. I believe they had never tried any case before this one.”
  
  This is an exchange between Joel Cohen and the prosecutor A. Martin Stroud III.
  
  “JC Now let’s go back to the political problems at the time Glenn Ford was on trial. So how much was the decision to seek the death penalty a political decision by the district attorney?
  AMS Well, the D.A. actually deferred to us. I was a lead prosecutor and we talked. The position was that when the train left the station - we thought that when Mr. Ford was confronted with the reality of what was getting ready to happen to him, he would flip. That switch didn’t flip and the train kept going.
  I don’t think that at the time there was a big outcry for the death penalty in the Ford case.”
  
  Mr. Stroud has apparently been tormented for many years because, as he said in the interview, “I was a participant in a series of events that led to the wrongful conviction of an individual in the United States of America.”
  But what the book may succeed in accomplishing, by illuminating these cases, is for example described in the last few sentences of the interview
  
  “JC If the result of this horrible tragedy were somehow a contribution to the abolition of the death penalty in the United States, would that finally bring a smile to your face?
  AMS It would finally bring a smile to my face.
  JC Thank you.”
  
  I fervently hope that the death penalty is abolished, and that people, especially prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys, will take greater care to insure that they don’t contribute to perpetrating injustice.
• Just finished reading this brilliant and provocative collection of interviews. The book allows the average person a glimpse into the injustices and failings of the American justice system. As a non-legal professional, I found this book extremely interesting and easy to understand given the interview format and cross-section of people interviewed. As prompted by the authors in the introduction, and in the words of the great MLK, I asked myself throughout whether, the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice?
• This outstanding book brings to life the impact of injustice on the people who suffer the injustice by brilliantly using the interview format. It is one thing to know that there is injustice in our system, and quite another to feel the agony of people who are its victims. After reading the chapter on Stephen Pagones, no one will ever read a newspaper the same way again.
• These interviews powerfully drive home the ways in which our well designed ceiminal justice system remains vulnerable to error or worse and the life-destroying consequences those errors produce. Thought provoking and very lmpactful. Important reading
  Publicus
• Broken Scales shines a light on ten miscarriages of justice in the American system over the course of the past 60 so years. Through thoughtful and poignant questioning, Joel Cohen elicits answers to some tough questions to people who have been hurt by the system we are taught protects us. This book is a disturbing, truthful compilation of interviews that is hard to put down and makes you question how comfortable you are in the current judicial climate. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a more nuanced perspective on the legal and justice system in American encapsulated in ten real life stories.
• Broken Scales was recommended to accompany a course on justice at John Jay College. It's a great book! The format works particularly well. Each section highlights a different case and begins with a short, contextual section that orients the reader. This is followed by the transcript of an interview with a significant participant in the events. Reading the first hand accounts really brings the cases to life and gives the reader a sense of immediacy and impact well beyond that of a historical analysis. Highly recommended!
• the author is a champion of righting injustice and his writing is a means to an end. his goal is to make the reader rethink their knee jerk reactions to what is and isn't justice or injustice and challenge your basic assumptions of each. A great and worthy read