The Fear of Too Much Justice

Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts

The book John Grisham calls “a clear and poignant indictment of criminal injustice in America”

“Everyone needs to read this book.” —Poppy Harlow, CNN

Called “a passionate and eye-opening behind-the-scenes account of the world of criminal justice and the lives impacted by the system’s injustices” by Booklist, The Fear of Too Much Justice, by renowned death penalty lawyer Stephen B. Bright and legal scholar James Kwak, offers a heart-wrenching overview of how the criminal legal system fails to live up to the values of equality and justice. It chronicles innocent people convicted of crimes and condemned to death because of their race and poverty, racial discrimination in jury selection that perpetuates all-white juries, people with mental disorders who are locked up in jails and prisons instead of given the treatment they need, poor people who are processed through courts in assembly-line fashion with no attention to them as individuals, and courts that act as centers of profit whose main purpose is to raise money by imposing fines on poor people who cannot afford them and jailing them in debtors’ prisons when they cannot pay.

With a foreword by Bryan Stevenson, who worked for Bright at the Southern Center for Human Rights and credits him for “[breaking] down the issues with the death penalty simply but persuasively,” The Fear of Too Much Justice offers a timely critique of our criminal courts and points the way toward a better future. This “invaluable resource” (Publishers Weekly) offers examples from around the country of places that are making progress toward justice and call for courts and legislatures to overcome their fear of too much justice and provide a full measure of justice for everyone.

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Praise

“For forty years Steve Bright has waged hand-to-hand legal combat to protect the poor and innocent, and to expose the truth behind capital punishment, wrongful convictions, corrupt prosecutors, incompetent judges, and all the other bad actors who have ruined our system.”

—John Grisham, bestselling author

“The Fear of Too Much Justice is an elegant, meticulous, and inspiring book about the brutal reality of injustices in the American criminal justice system and changes that must be made to save individual lives and our collective humanity. With their searing analyses and palpable compassion, Steve Bright and James Kwak open our minds, touch our hearts, and move us forward.”

—Janet Dewart Bell, co-editor of Race, Rights, and Redemption and author of Lighting the Fires of Freedom

“Finally, a book that takes Justice Brennan’s famous line to its logical conclusions, calling into question every aspect of the way that we criminalize and punish in the United States today. It will be an indispensable teaching tool, providing a holistic view of the problems with criminal courts and the criminal legal system, from top to bottom.”

—Jocelyn Simonson, professor of law and associate dean of research and scholarship, Brooklyn Law School, and author of Radical Acts of Justice

“[An] urgent call to action. . . . [The Fear of Too Much Justice] is an invaluable resource for advocates of criminal justice reform.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Bright has written a book that draws together insights gained from four decades at the coalface of US criminal justice. . . . [The Fear of Too Much Justice] chronicles the myriad ways poor defendants, disproportionately from Black and other minority communities, have the chips stacked against them.”

—The Guardian

“[The Fear of Too Much Justice] examines the myriad ways in which the search for justice unravels once someone is charged with a crime, beginning with the nearly unlimited discretion accorded prosecutors to shape the case and exploit the advantages they have in resources and access to information.”

—The New York Review of Books

“No one has more experience with the racism that infects our legal system than Steve Bright, and no one has worked more relentlessly to expose and eliminate it. Read this book. It will inform and infuriate you in equal measure, and equip you to join the long struggle toward justice.”

—Thomas L. Dybdahl, author of When Innocence is Not Enough

“As the face of the Southern Center for Human Rights for more than three decades, iconic civil rights attorney Steve Bright has been waist-deep in the injustice of the criminal justice system since the 1970s. With co-author James Kwak, he powerfully catalogues the system’s ills, and offers insightful remedies to help us overcome the fear of too much justice.”

—Marc Bookman, author of A Descending Spiral

“Steve Bright has long been one of our most passionate and sophisticated advocates for justice. In The Fear of Too Much Justice Bright and Kwak make a devastating case for the shameful state of justice in far too many of our courtrooms today.”

—Marc Mauer, former executive director of The Sentencing Project and co-author of The Meaning of Life

“A passionate and eye-opening behind-the-scenes account of the world of criminal justice and the lives impacted by the system’s injustices.”

—Booklist

“A virtual road map of the mistakes we continue to make, and the remedies that are obvious once you see them on the page.”

—Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books

News and Reviews

The Guardian

Read a profile of The Fear of Too Much Justice co-author Stephen Bright, “one of America’s great justice warriors,” in The Guardian.

Book Web Site

To learn more about The Fear of Too Much Justice and authors Stephen Bright and James Kwak, visit the book’s web site

CNN

Watch an interview with The Fear of Too Much Justice co-author Stephen Bright on CNN This Morning.

The New Press

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