Mean Justice: A Town's Terror, a Prosecutor's Power, a Betrayal of Innocence
Books / Hardcover
Books › True Crime › General
ISBN: 0684831740 / Publisher: Simon & Schuster, February 1999
Relates how dozens of citizens in a California town were convicted of offenses they did not commit by politicians and police determined to beat crime at any cost
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In Mean Justice, journalist Edward Humes embarks on a chilling journey to the dark side of the justice system - the powerful true story of one man's battle to prove his innocence. It is a story both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, for Humes shows how the individual injustice done to one man is part of a disturbing national trend, in which innocence becomes the unintended casualty of the war on crime, and the immense new powers of prosecutors - from Main Street to Wall Street to Pennsylvania Avenue - are dangerously unchecked.Humes tells how retired high-school principal Pat Dunn was prosecuted for killing his wife to inherit her millions. Mean Justice reveals how Dunn's case was tainted by hidden witnesses, concealed evidence and behind-the-scenes lobbying by powerful politicians. More horrifying still, there were many such cases in this All-American town, where a well-meaning desire for public safety led to something dark and terrible and unjust. Finally, Humes asks whether the mean justice dispensed in Bakersfield, California, may be fast becoming the norm for the rest of the country, where, in our zeal for order, we are increasingly forgiving prosecutorial misconduct.
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