Guilty: The Collapse of Criminal Justice

Drawing on a career's worth of experience and using the O.J. Simpson trial as a prime example, a well-respected state supreme court judge makes the case for 10 major reforms of the criminal justice system, including the end of unnanimous jury verdicts; the elimination of the Miranda rulings; and a new interpretation of the Fourth and Fofth Amendments.

Judge Rothwax was a defense lawyer before becoming a New York trial judge 25 years ago, and now his nickname among defense lawyers is "the prince of darkness." He is known as one of the hardest judges on the bench, extremely unsympathetic to the accused. This book will reinforce his reputation. Rothwax is convinced that procedural scruples are causing appellate judges to release large numbers of dangerous criminals, and that this is threatening "the collapse of criminal justice." In this strident polemic he calls for a loosening of rules of evidence in favor of the prosecution, a limiting of a suspect's right to a lawyer during the investigative phase, a complete repudiation of the police Miranda warning, and technical changes to speed trials.