Mean Justice
First sentence
BAKERSFIELD IS LESS THAN A TWO-HOUR DRIVE FROM downtown Los Angeles, yet it has always existed in happy isolation, kept separate from the smog and sprawl of its southern neighbor by the iron gray of the Tehachapi Mountains and the treacherous asphalt snake of the Grapevine Pass, its one connection to the urban centers of Southern California...
Description
"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."--BOOK JACKET.