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Title: A Trial by Jury by D. Graham Burnett ISBN: 0-375-72751-5 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 08 October, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (40 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: "Have You Reached A Verdict, Mr. Foreman?"
Comment: Kudos to this insightful portrait of the trial by jury. Very few books have revealed the inner workings of a jury's deliberations with such clarity and detail. The author sat as the foreman of the jury in the criminal trial of the People vs. Monte Milcray for murder in the second degree held in New York City. In just 183 pages, the author takes the reader through the jurors and their backgrounds, the trial and the evidence and then reveals how all of this plays together for four days during the jury's deliberations and sequestration. You cannot come away from this text and not better appreciate the power of a jury and the valuable service it performs in our system of "justice." For this alone, you will be glad you read this book.
This book, however, is not without its flaws. Early on in the text, the author refers to Ockham's metaphorical razor as the philosopher's tool used to excise all but the most essential to arrive at the truth. This book's editor obviously misunderstood this concept, and allowed what is a good book to be lessened with the author's ruminations that do nothing to illuminate what this book is about except to reveal the author's intellectual prowess and his penchant for affected behaviors. Maybe that's the way the Princeton University history department likes its assistant professors (the book's jacket identifies the author as one) to appear in print, but since other reviewers on this site have also complained about how the author's smugness gets in the way, I cannot help but think that this book could have been so much better if a stronger editor had been assigned.
If you live in Manhattan or work in its court system, you will particularly appreciate this book. If you're a lawyer, you'd better listen to what the jury actually thinks is important. And if you're a casual reader who appreciates a book about trials and the legal process, I predict you'll like this book, but you probably won't invite its author to your next party.
Rating: 4
Summary: Listen to the recorded version
Comment: For those who found (or think they may find) this book pretentious or smug, I strongly suggest you listen to the recorded version. It's recorded by the author himself. I suspect that in the printed version, what Burnett intended to be self-deprecating or self-parodying did indeed come across as self-important. When you hear the author's voice and intonations, though, it's clear that he is aware of his own flaws. In fact, these flaws are part of the story, as much as are the quirks of any of the other characters (jurors). The last lines of the book could not be more clear about the author's awareness of how far he fell short of his duty.
I thought his ruminations on justice, his insight about the difference between literature and law, were perceptive and fascinating -- as were the glimpses into the strange bonding experience of jury duty. Well worth a read -- or a listen.
Rating: 1
Summary: Avoid This Book
Comment: This is a terrible book by an atrocious author. The author is not very likable; at the start he has made up his mind about the case, so he makes fun of the other jurors for being stupid, especially the ones that don't support his position. His arrogance comes through easily, making long winded speeches to his fellow jurors and "putting them in their place" when they say things he doesn't like (despite his being younger than most of them).
He says early on that it was his goal to "hang the jury," and the only rationale he gives for that is that his whole experience in life has been academia, where the discussion essentially never ends, and he just doesn't have it in him to make such a final decision. How odd!
There are no real insights into the criminal justice process, just lots of very high-brow language that sounds almost put-on. Also, he exerpts from his diary at one point--showing that even in his personal life, this fellow can only write pretensiously.
Avoid this book!
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Title: We, the Jury: The Jury System and the Ideal of Democracy : With a New Preface by Jeffrey Abramson ISBN: 0674004302 Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Count and the Confession: A True Mystery by John Taylor ISBN: 0375725830 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 10 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Police Brutality: An Anthology by Jill Nelson ISBN: 0393321630 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr ISBN: 0679772677 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Palladium of Justice: Origins of Trial by Jury by Leonard W. Levy ISBN: 1566632595 Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher Pub. Date: 01 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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