Law without Justice Why Criminal Law Doesn't Give People What They Deserve [Hardcover]

If an innocent person is sent to prison or if a killer walks free, we are outraged. The legal system assures us, and we expect and demand, that it will seek to do justice in criminal cases. So why, for some cases, does the criminal law deliberately and routinely sacrifice justice? In this unflinching look at American criminal law, Paul Robinson and Michael Cahill demonstrate that cases with unjust outcomes are not always irregular or unpredictable. Rather, the criminal law sometimes chooses not to give defendants what they deserve: that is, unsatisfying results occur even when the system works as it is designed to work. The authors find that while some justice-sacrificing doctrines serve their intended purpose, many others do not, or could be replaced by other, better rules that would serve the purpose without abandoning a just result. With a panoramic view of the overlapping and often competing goals that our legal institutions must balance on a daily basis,Law without Justicechallenges us to restore justice to the criminal justice system.


Law without Justiceis the best-written book on criminal justice I have read in years. The erudition that went into its creation is immense. Many lament departures from deserved punishment. Robinson and Cahill do more: they reveal just how deliberate these deviations are, and exactly what can be done to right the scales of justice.
--John Monahan, Doherty Professor of Law, University of Virginia

Paul H. Robinson and Michael T. Cahill expertly confront departures from justice and the resulting harm to the legal system's credibility...The inspired result blends erudite analysis and expedient recommendations for reform. --New York Law Journal

This book is a must-read for thoughtful legislators and all the rest of us who seek justice for persons charged with crime--proportional punishment of the guilty, and exculpation of the morally blameless. The autlâ