The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts

The book John Grisham calls “a clear and poignant indictment of criminal injustice in America” Called “a passionate and eye-opening behind-the-scenes account of the world of criminal justice and the lives impacted by the system’s injustices” by Booklist, The Fear of Too Much Justice, by renowned death penalty lawyer 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. It chronicles innocent people convicted of crimes and condemned to death because of their race and poverty, racial discrimination in jury selection that perpetuates all-white juries, people with mental disorders who are locked up in jails and prisons instead of given the treatment they need, poor people who are processed through courts in assembly-line fashion with no attention to them as individuals, and courts that act as centers of profit whose main purpose is to raise money by imposing fines on poor people who cannot afford them and jailing them in debtors’ prisons when they cannot pay.

In this “invaluable resource” (Publishers Weekly), renowned death penalty lawyer Stephen B. Bright and legal scholar James Kwak also offer examples from around the country of places that are making progress toward justice and call for courts and legislatures to overcome their fear of too much justice and provide a full measure of justice for everyone.