Clive Stafford Smith

A damning indictment of the American legal system. It's full of facts and examples of the way the system works (or mostly doesn't) all woven around the detailed history of one of Stafford Smith's clients on death row. All the other cases he quotes are fascinating, if also rather depressing. It makes you wonder how he could have carried on with this largely unpaid work for so many years.
One fascinating/depressing fact - inmates on death row are not allowed cigarettes on the grounds of health and safety!… (mere)

In 1986, Kris Maharaj, a British businessman living in Miami, was arrested for the brutal murder of two ex-business associates. His lawyer did not present a strong alibi; Kris was found guilty and sentenced to death in the electric chair.

It wasn't until a young lawyer working for nothing, Clive Stafford Smith, took on his case that strong evidence began to emerge that the state of Florida had got the wrong man on Death Row. So far, so good - except that, as Stafford Smith argues here so compellingly, the American justice system is actually designed to ignore innocence. Twenty-six years later, Maharaj is still in jail.

Step by step, Stafford Smith untangles the Maharaj case and the system that makes disasters like this inevitable. His conclusions will act as a wake-up call for those who condone legislation which threatens basic human rights and, at the same time, the personal story he tells demonstrates that determination can challenge the institutions that surreptitiously threaten our freedom.… (mere)