This month Elizabeth Kelley reviews Waiting for an Echo: The Madness of American Incarceration by Christine Montross, M.D.

This month Tony Bornstein reviews Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of America by Richard Gergel.

This month Elizabeth Kelley reviews Trying Times: A Lawyer’s 50-Year Struggle Fighting for Rights in a World of Wrongs by Terry Gilbert with Carlo Wolff.

This month Jennifer Sellitti reviews Smoke but No Fire: Convicting the Innocent of Crimes That Never Happened by Jessica S. Henry.

This month Susan Elizabeth Reese reviews Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court by Renee Knake Jefferson and Hannah Brenner Johnson.

This month David Patton reviews Gideon’s Promise: A Public Defender Movement to Transform Criminal Justice by Jonathan Rapping.

This month Marvin Miller reviews “No Noose” by Musicians United to End the Death Penalty.

This month Jeffrey M. Gamso reviews Homeward: Life in the Year after Prison by Bruce Western.

In the film Moonlight, we follow the life of Chiron, a little boy who is black, gay, and poor. “Who is you, Chiron?” is a question put to this child and to us, a question that transcends race, sexuality, and class. Chiron lives in the projects in Liberty City (Miami) with his crack-addict mom. He has to guard against bullies. He knows his sexual identity but is unsure of how to treat it. He aches for love from someone, anyone. As a mother and a lawyer, I wanted to hold this child in my arms. Moonlight is just that — an embrace set to piano and strings.

DVD Review: Released reviewed by Sejal H. Patel. In the film, Torres and three other former inmates shared their life stories from adolescence to incarceration to redemption.

Radley Balko lays out the reasons the police usually target peaceful citizens in an incredibly well-researched tome. Importantly, he does a good job of not blaming the police force, but rather the failed policies that give officers incentives to target the least harmful suspects.

Book Review: Fundraiser A - My Fight for Freedom and Justice reviewed by David Raybin. Robert Blagojevich’s book recounts his life-changing experience when facing the power of the United States of America, hell-bent on providing him with a prison cell adjacent to his more famous brother.

Frank Southers attempts a genre of mystery noir in A Serious Mistake. The reader is not persuaded, to paraphrase appellate courts.
The plot: A tough ex-prosecutor, now a tough defense attorney, attends his first meeting as an administrative voluntary judge for bar complaints filed against San Antonio, Texas, lawyers.

The United States of America is the only country that condemns minors to life sentences without the possibility of parole.

The documentary West of Memphis actually tells two stories, that of a criminal prosecution that resulted in unjust murder convictions of three Arkansas teenagers and that of the media, first in reporting the case and then as a driving force in challenging the convictions.