Synopses & Reviews
The maverick public defender who inspired John Grisham tells the story of his most frustrating caseA man accused of a murder he didn’t commit languishes on death row. A crusading lawyer is determined to free him. This powerful book reads like a page-turning legal thriller with one crucial difference: Justice is not served in the end.
In 1986, Kris Maharaj was arrested in Miami for the murder of his ex- business partner. A witness swore he saw him pull the trigger and a jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. But he swears he didn’t do it. Twenty years later, he’s bankrupted himself on appeals and been abandoned by everyone but his wife.
Enter Clive Stafford Smith, a charismatic public defender with a passion for lost causes who calls up old files and embarks on his own investigation. It takes him from Miami to Nassau to Washington as he uncovers corruption at every turn. Step by step, Clive slowly dismantles the case, guiding us through the whole scaffolding of the legal process and revealing a fundamentally broken system whose goal is not so much to find the right man as to convict.
A bombshell whose final chapter should re-open a long closed case, The Injustice System will appeal to fans of true crime and anyone who has served on a jury.
Review
A troubling portrayal of the criminal justice system from within its well-guarded walls.” —
New York Times
“Required reading for anyone who believes that only the guilty are put to death…A catalog of appalling miscarriages of justice.” —Washington Post
"[A] chilling look at judicial corruption and incompetence.” —New York Daily News
“Should be required reading for...our justice system.”—Philadelphia Inquirer
Review
“A complicated whodunit . . . In the course of recounting the crime, trial, and appeals, Smith paints a bleak picture of criminal justice in America—this is Miami after all, not some backwater town. There are dishonest cops, smug prosecutors, a feckless defense lawyer (now a judge), and venal witnesses. . . . A moving tale of devotion by an extraordinary lawyer who nearly bankrupted himself and his fledgling public-interest law office to fight for his clients life and liberty,
The Injustice System reveals the deep gap between cherished ideals and harsh reality in a country addicted to incarceration.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“True stories of wrongful convictions are by their nature utterly compelling, but most Americans don't believe them. How can our vaunted system break down so miserably? In The Injustice System, Clive Stafford Smith details a spectacular example of a bogus conviction, and the many lives ruined by it. It is a superbly written account of only one case, but one of thousands.” —John Grisham
“An empowering read for anyone who cares about the human implementation of justice.” —Colin Firth
“If you believe in the death penalty, read this book. It will change your mind and change your life.” —Susan Hill
“Clive Stafford Smith is a true hero and this book helps explain why.” —Jon Ronson
“Smith packages this revealing analysis of the broader justice system in a true-life legal thriller about one particularly egregious case. . . . He shines a harsh light on the conventional belief that the innocent rarely go as far as trial and are seldom convicted, and the immunity of prosecutors from accusations of wrongdoing, including withholding evidence that could prove defendants innocent.” —Booklist
Review
Praise for The Injustice System
“A complicated whodunit . . . In the course of recounting the crime, trial, and appeals, Smith paints a bleak picture of criminal justice in America—this is Miami after all, not some backwater town. There are dishonest cops, smug prosecutors, a feckless defense lawyer (now a judge), and venal witnesses. . . . A moving tale of devotion by an extraordinary lawyer who nearly bankrupted himself and his fledgling public-interest law office to fight for his clients life and liberty, The Injustice System reveals the deep gap between cherished ideals and harsh reality in a country addicted to incarceration.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“True stories of wrongful convictions are by their nature utterly compelling, but most Americans dont believe them. How can our vaunted system break down so miserably? In The Injustice System, Clive Stafford Smith details a spectacular example of a bogus conviction, and the many lives ruined by it. It is a superbly written account of only one case, but one of thousands.” —John Grisham
“An empowering read for anyone who cares about the human implementation of justice.” —Colin Firth
“Clive Stafford Smith is an extraordinary lawyer, but he is also a great storyteller . . . a powerful thriller, beautifully told.” —Helena Kennedy
“A terrific read. Stranger than any fiction and much more exciting than Miami Vice.” —Geoffrey Robertson
“If you believe in the death penalty, read this book. It will change your mind and change your life.” —Susan Hill
“Clive Stafford Smith is a true hero and this book helps explain why.” —Jon Ronson
“A well-researched book about a suspected wrongful conviction . . . The tension within the pages is relentless. . . . Based on his own investigation, Stafford Smith alleges evidence was cooked by an overzealous homicide detective, prosecutors bending the principles of justice they are sworn to uphold, forensic examiners providing biased readings of evidence, witnesses committing perjury, a trial judge who was less than devoted to evenhandedness, and appellate justices dismissing powerful new evidence suggesting Maharajs innocence. . . . As in so many alleged wrongful conviction cases—and in so many documented exonerations—it is puzzling to calculate how a dozen jurors all failed to find ‘reasonable doubt.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Smith packages this revealing analysis of the broader justice system in a true-life legal thriller about one particularly egregious case. . . . He shines a harsh light on the conventional belief that the innocent rarely go as far as trial and are seldom convicted, and the immunity of prosecutors from accusations of wrongdoing, including withholding evidence that could prove defendants innocent.” —Vanessa Bush, Booklist
Synopsis
Here are the stories of innocent men and women—and the system that put them away under the guise of justice. Now updated with new information, Actual Innocence sheds light on “a system that tolerates lying prosecutors, slumbering defense attorneys and sloppy investigators” (Salt Lake Tribune)—revealing the shocking flaws that can derail the legal process and the ways that DNA testing has often shattered so-called solid evidence that condemned American citizens to death.
Synopsis
An Atlantic Book of the Year and finalist for the Orwell Prize: a riveting true crime tale from the defense attorney who inspired John Grishams The Chamber
Legendary criminal defense attorney Clive Stafford Smith has devoted his career to helping save penniless defendants from a justice system whose goal is not so much to find the right man as to get a conviction.
Miami, 1986. Kris Maharaj is arrested, tried, and sentenced to death for the brutal murder of his exbusiness partner, Derrick Moo Young, and Derricks son, Duane. Suspecting Kris may be innocent, as he claims, Stafford Smith begins his own investigation, which takes him from Miami to Nassau in the Bahamas to Colombia in search of the real killer. Interweaving the authors inspiring personal story with a spellbinding page-turner, The Injustice System exposes our broken legal processand drops a bombshell that should reopen a long-closed case.
About the Author
Clive Stafford Smith has spent twenty-five years defending high-profile criminal cases in Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana. A recipient of the Gandhi International Peace Award and a Lannan Cultural Freedom Award, he was a finalist for the Orwell Prize for his most recent book,
Eight O’Clock Ferry to the Windward Side: Seeking Justice In Guantanamo Bay. He founded Reprieve, a nonprofit legal defense firm and lived for many years in New Orleans.
Table of Contents
Actual Innocence Author's Note
Introduction: Wrong Numbers
1. An Innocence Project
2. An Invention
3. Seeing Things
4. False Confessions
5. White Coat Fraud
6. Snitch
7. Junk Science
8. Broken Oaths
9. Sleeping Lawyers
10. Race
11. The Death of Innocents
12. Starting Over
13. Lessons
14. Reckonings: An Update
Appendix 1: A Short List of Reforms to Protect the Innocent
Appendix 2: DNA Exonerations at a Glance
Sources
Acknowledgments
Index