The Fear of Too Much Justice

Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts

Stephen Bright, James Kwak

• Publisher: The New Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781620978047
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Courts
• Index: Social Sciences

A legendary lawyer and a legal scholar reveal the structural failures that undermine justice in our criminal courts

“An urgently needed analysis of our collective failure to confront and overcome racial bias and bigotry, the abuse of power, and the multiple ways in which the death penalty’s profound unfairness requires its abolition. You will discover Steve Bright’s passion, brilliance, dedication, and tenacity when you read these pages.” —from the foreword by Bryan Stevenson

Called “passionate and eye-opening” by Booklist, The Fear of Too Much Justice, by the legendary death penalty attorney Stephen B. Bright and legal scholar James Kwak, offers a heart-wrenching overview of how the criminal legal system fails to live up to the values of equality and justice. The book ranges from people convicted of crimes and condemned to death because of their race and poverty to poor people squeezed for cash by private probation companies because of trivial violations. Bright and Kwak also offer examples from places around the country that are making progress toward justice.

With a foreword by Bryan Stevenson, and now in an accessible paperback format, this “urgent call to action . . . is an invaluable resource” (Publishers Weekly).

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword by Bryan Stevenson
• 1. The Myth of the Adversary System
• 2. The All-Powerful Prosecutor
• 3. A Poor Person’s Justice
• 4. Judges and the Politics of Crime
• 5. The Whitewashed Jury
• 6. Courts of Profit
• 7. The Madness of Measuring Mental Disorders
• 8. An Excess of Punishment
• 9. More Justice, Less Crime
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Authors
• Publishing in the Public Interest
• Copyright