Criminal Law

Forensic Science Errors and Wrongful Convictions: Case Studies and Root Causes provides a rigorous and detailed examination of two key issues: the continuing problem of wrongful convictions and the role of forensic science in these miscarriages of justice.

Have you cringed at the grisly sight of a chopped off right or left hand? Or perhaps you are someone who was taught to believe such actions are sanctioned by God or Allah? If so, where did you get this belief?

In 1989, Ben Spencer, a twenty-two-year-old Black man from Dallas, was convicted of murdering white businessman Jeffrey Young—a crime he didn’t commit. From the day of his arrest, Spencer insisted that it was “an awful mistake.” The Texas legal system didn’t see it that way. It allowed shoddy police work, paid witnesses, and prosecutorial misconduct to convict Spencer of murder, and it ignored later efforts to correct this error. The state’s bureaucratic intransigence caused Spencer to spend more than half his life in prison.

Nearly every aspect of our criminal justice system encourages defendants-whether innocent or guilty-to take a plea deal. Punishment Without Trial showcases how plea bargaining has undermined justice at every turn and across socioeconomic and racial divides. It forces the hand of lawyers, judges, and defendants, turning our legal system into a ruthlessly efficient mass incarceration machine that is dogging our jails and pun­ishing citizens.

For over forty years, criminal defence solicitor Henry Milner has been the go-to lawyer for some of Britain's most notorious criminals including Kenneth Noye and the Brink's-Mat robbers, Freddie Foreman, John 'Goldfinger' Palmer and the gang behind the Millennium Dome raid. Here, the lawyer offers a fascinating insight into life at the top of the profession, lifting the lid on the psychology of those who end up on the wrong side of the law and those who defend them. By turns shocking and hilarious, this remarkable memoir takes us deep into the enigmatic criminal underworld.

Adam and his sister, Leila, are Nons—second-class citizens, living under the Permitted ruling class. Though their life in the Stone City is filled with family, stories, and music, they must carefully follow the rules, have all paperwork on hand, and never, ever do anything to anger a Permitted. When their father unexpectedly dies, they are even restricted in how they are allowed to grieve.

A posthumously published memoir of one of the most renowned Entertainment Industry Attorneys in Hollywood History.

Straight from the bowels of back street police stations, locked psychiatric wards and the criminal courts, these are the brazen tales of a bare-knuckle barrister.

When a defendant swears "to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth", most judges and barristers believe their evidence will be "nothing like the truth". In Nothing Like the Truth, Nigel Lithman, QC, provides an entertaining and irreverent insight into life in the criminal courts as barrister, QC, and Crown Court judge. Using his experience in true crime, he mixes tales of horror with humor and questions whether it is possible for defendants to get a fair trial.

Mass incarceration has become a lucrative industry, and the criminal justice system is plagued with bias and unjust practices. And the church has unwittingly contributed to these problems. Dominique Gilliard explores the history and foundation of mass incarceration, examining Christianity's role in its evolution and expansion. He assesses our nation's ethic of meritocratic justice in light of Scripture and exposes the theologies that embolden mass incarceration.

In The Innocent Killer, Michael Griesbach tells the story of one of the nation's most notorious wrongful convictions, that of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. But two years after he was exonerated of that crime and poised to reap millions in his wrongful conviction lawsuit, Steven Avery was arrested for the exceptionally brutal murder of Teresa Halbach, a freelance photographer who had gone missing several days earlier.

Dr. Christine Montross has spent her career treating the most severely ill psychiatric patients. Several years ago, she set out to investigate why so many of her patients got caught up in the legal system when discharged from her care - and what happened to them therein. Waiting for an Echo is a riveting, rarely seen glimpse into American incarceration. It is also a damning account of policies that have criminalized mental illness, shifting large numbers of people who belong in therapeutic settings into punitive ones.

It’s been four months since Janelle Tenner stopped the Earth’s destruction with the help of Ben, the boy who resurrected her after she died. Ben is gone now - disappeared through a portal to his home world. Even though Ben broke her heart, Janelle refuses to believe it when Interverse Agent Taylor Barclay tells her Ben is suspected of running a human-trafficking ring across several universes. She vows to uncover the true culprit and rescue the people who have been sold into slavery on alternate Earths - not to mention find Ben and prove his innocence.

Before Texas became a state in the United States of America, Texas Rangers would become the first state law enforcement agency that would be formed. For about 150 years, this group of law enforcement agents has been viewed as both heroes and villains. Often portrayed in the movies and on TV as the kind of men who stick up for justice or who are the victims of truly sinister bad guys, the reality was far less black and white.

In 2018, the FBI was given only a week to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But even as Kavanaugh was sworn in, many questions remained unanswered, leaving millions of Americans unsettled. During the confirmation hearings, New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly broke critical stories about Kavanaugh's past, including the "Renate Alumni" yearbook story. They were inundated with tips that couldn't be fully investigated before the confirmation process closed. Now, their book fills in the blanks.

Carla Del Ponte won international recognition as Switzerland's attorney general when she pursued cases against the Sicilian mafia. In 1999, she answered the United Nations' call to become the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. In her new role, Del Ponte confronted genocide and crimes against humanity head-on, struggling to bring to justice the highest-ranking individuals responsible for massive acts of violence in Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo.

Why do we consider incest wrong, even when it occurs between consenting adults unable to have children? Why are words that gross us out more likely to be deemed "obscene" and denied the protection of the First Amendment? In Objection, psychologists Debra Lieberman and Carlton Patrick examine disgust and its impact on the legal system to show why the things that we find stomach-turning so often become the things that we render unlawful.

Though often taken for granted, the modern American public defender is a recent invention with a surprisingly contentious history - one that offers insights not only about the "carceral state" but also about the contours and compromises of 20th-century liberalism.

One in 10 American children has a parent under criminal justice supervision - incarcerated, on probation, or on parole. One in 33 American children - and one in eight African American children - goes to sleep without access to a parent because that parent is in jail. Despite these staggering numbers, the children of prisoners remain largely invisible to society. Journalist Nell Bernstein shows, through the deeply moving stories of real families, how the children of the incarcerated are routinely punished for their parents' status.

Jennifer Ridha was enlisted to defend Cameron Douglas, the son of film actor Michael Douglas, in a federal drug-trafficking case. Beyond his celebrity, Cameron's case was complicated by the fact that he suffered from anxiety. As media scrutiny and the pressures of his case mounted, Cameron's anxiety worsened. When Jennifer's efforts to alleviate his condition through the proper channels fell flat, she agreed to illicitly smuggle in the antianxiety medication that the prison refused to dispense.