Her Honor
My Life on the Bench...What Works, What's Broken, and How to Change It
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Her Honor
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Narrated by:
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LaDoris Hazzard Cordell
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Written by:
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LaDoris Hazzard Cordell
About this listen
This program is read by the author.
In Her Honor, Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell provides a rare and thought-provoking insider account of our legal system, sharing vivid stories of the cases that came through her courtroom and revealing the strengths, flaws, and much-needed changes within our courts.
Judge Cordell, the first African American woman to sit on the Superior Court of Northern California, knows firsthand how prejudice has permeated our legal system. And yet, she believes in the system. From ending school segregation to legalizing same-sex marriage, its progress relies on legal professionals and jurors who strive to make the imperfect system as fair as possible.
Her Honor is an entertaining and provocative look into the hearts and minds of judges. Cordell takes you into her chambers where she haggles with prosecutors and defense attorneys and into the courtroom during jury selection and sentencing hearings. She uses real cases to highlight how judges make difficult decisions, all the while facing outside pressures from the media, law enforcement, lobbyists, and the friends and families of the people involved.
Cordell’s candid account of her years on the bench shines light on all areas of the legal system, from juvenile delinquency and the shift from rehabilitation to punishment, along with the racial biases therein, to the thousands of plea bargains that allow our overburdened courts to stay afloat - as long as innocent people are willing to plead guilty. There are tales of marriages and divorces, adoptions, and contested wills - some humorous, others heartwarming, still others deeply troubling.
Her Honor is for anyone who’s had the good or bad fortune to stand before a judge or sit on a jury. It is for true-crime junkies and people who vote in judicial elections. Most importantly, this is an audiobook for anyone who wants to know what our legal system, for better or worse, means to the everyday lives of all Americans.
A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books
©2021 LaDoris Hazzard Cordell (P)2021 Macmillan AudioWhat the critics say
"Enriched by intriguing case studies and Cordell’s no-nonsense manner, this is an accessible peek into the halls of justice." (Publishers Weekly)
"In her memoir Her Honor, the principled and uncommon retired California Superior Court Judge LaDoris H. Cordell offers an unvarnished peek into the mind of a jurist as she adjudicated within a legal system that is politically, systemically, and historically flawed. Narrated with candor and humor, and rich with tales from the bench and inside her chambers, Cordell unpacks her efforts to do both what is right and what is just, and to critique and improve upon a system even as she revered it. Revealing, engrossing, funny, and ultimately instructive, the memoir concludes with ten recommendations for judicial reform that all jurisdictions would do well to take up. A must-read about the ability of one person to stand up for justice both within the system and outside of it." (Julie Lythcott-Haims, New York Times best-selling author)
"LaDoris Cordell was the first Black woman judge in Northern California. In this remarkable book – part memoir, part insistence on reform, she tells it exactly how it is. Alternately searing and heartwarming, this is a book that will at one moment will make you shudder at the profoundly sad stories that find their way into our legal system, and tear up at others. This is one great read, and not to be missed." (Barry Friedman, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law, NYU School of Law)