William Stuntz - “The Collapse of American Criminal Justice”

[groovedaddy]

“The Collapse of American Criminal Justice” by William Stuntz, to be published this year, is the capstone to the career of one of the most influential legal scholars of the past generation. He died last week at 52.

The book argues that the rule of law has been replaced by the misrule of politics, with a one-way ratchet of ever-expanding criminal laws giving boundless discretion to police and prosecutors, leading to a system that wrongly punishes too many black men.

The solution is “a better brand of politics,” including more “local democracy” through jury decisions about who is guilty and how they should be punished and a broad revival of equal protection of the laws to end pervasive discrimination against the poor and minorities.

The book’s concern about justice and equality gives it a liberal cast, but Mr. Stuntz called himself a conservative Republican. His defiance of easy labeling on the left or right was unusual among scholars of crime and punishment. But it was eclipsed by his other anomalies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/opinion/24thu4.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211

[Turbineguy]

1. There are probably a lot of conservative republicans like that.

They come here and post and vote for Democrats.

[groovedaddy]

2. So there is hope? n.t