It was a warm, still, July summer night in 2014, when an 85-year-old woman, a beloved grandmother and neighbor, was viciously murdered by someone who slipped quietly into her bedroom and slit her throat and watched her bleed to death in less than a minute.Who committed this awful murder, how, and why? The perpetrator of this horrible crime was the woman's own grandson, an adored and trusted family member. He was married and also had four children of his own. James W. Marquart walks...

This book investigates the unintended and deadly consequences of criminal justice reforms through observing the effects of prison depopulation sentencing reform on county jails. This mixed-methods case study explores how California’s sentencing reform efforts in 2011 (Assembly Bill 109) and 2014 (Proposition 47) to depopulate California state prisons impacted California county jail inmate culture and experiences. Its results demonstrate how California county jails inmate culture became mor...

How does a prison achieve institutional order while safeguarding prisoners' rights? Since the early 1960s, prison reform advocates have aggressively used the courts to extend rights and improve life for inmates, while prison administrators have been slow to alter the status quo. Litigated reform has been the most significant force in obtaining change.An Appeal to Justice is a critical tudy of how the Texas Department of Corrections was transformed by Ruiz v. Estelle

What should be done with minors who kill, maim, defile, and destroy the lives of others? The state of Texas deals with some of its most serious and violent youthful offenders through “determinate sentencing,” a unique sentencing structure that blends parts of the juvenile and adult justice systems. Once adjudicated via determinate sentencing, offenders are first incarcerated in the Texas Youth Commission (TYC). As they approach age eighteen, they are either transferred to the Texas prison ...

Decades after the U.S. Supreme Court and certain governmental actions struck down racial segregation in the larger society, American prison administrators still boldly adhered to discriminatory practices. Not until 1975 did legislation prohibit racial segregation and discrimination in Texas prisons. However, vestiges of this practice endured behind prison walls. Charting the transformation from segregation to desegregation in Texas prisons—which resulted in Texas prisons becoming one of th...

In late summer 1923, legal hangings in Texas came to an end, and the electric chair replaced the gallows. Of 520 convicted capital offenders sentenced to die between 1923 and 1972, 361 were actually executed, thus maintaining Texas’ traditional reputation as a staunch supporter of capital punishment.This book is the single most comprehensive examination to date of capital punishment in any one state, drawing on data for legal executions from 1819 to 1990. The authors show persuasively how ...

Here is a powerful look at gender issues in the criminal justice system, particularly as gender is related to sex offenses and the system’s response to those offenses. Experts examine inmate sexual aggression, gender disparity in bail setting, racial patterns of rape, the female offender’s adjustment to prison life, the psychological profile of female first offenders, and the self-image of juvenile prostitutes.

AN ORIGINAL E-SHORT • This prequel to John Grisham’s #1 New York Times bestseller The Whistler delivers a startling and original courtroom drama.In one small-town courthouse, the stakes are unbearably high for nearly everyone present: A judge presiding over his first murder trial. A defense attorney in over his head. A prosecutor out for blood and glory. The accused, who is possibly innocent. And the killer, who may have just committed the perfect...

The #1 New York Times -bestselling legal thriller writer delivers "the most convincing, levelheaded analysis of [the death penalty] I have encountered" ( The Washington Post ).Scott Turow is known to millions as the author of peerless novels about the troubling regions of experience where law and reality intersect. In "real life," as a respected criminal lawyer, he has been involv...

**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**"It’s a mark of the highest honor when I say it’s even more riveting than an episode of 'Dateline'."**—The New York TimesFrom Paul Holes, the detective who found the Golden State Killer, Unmasked is a memoir that "grabs its reader in a stranglehold and proves more fascinating than fiction and darker than any noir narrative." (LA Magazine)**I order an...

A comprehensive, readable analysis of the key issues of the Black Lives Matter movement, this thought-provoking and compelling anthology features essays by some of the nation’s most influential and respected criminal justice experts and legal scholars.“Somewhere among the anger, mourning and malice that Policing the Black Man documents lies the pursuit of justice. This powerful book demands our fierce attention.” —Toni MorrisonPolicing the Blac...

The most common triggers for homicide are fear, rage, revenge, money, lust, and, more rarely, sheer madness. This isn’t an exact science, of course. Any given murder can have multiple triggers. Sex and revenge seem to be common partners in crime. Rage, money, and revenge make for a dangerous trifecta of triggers, as well.This book offers my memories of homicide cases that I investigated or oversaw. In each case, I examine the trigger that led to death. I chose this theme for the bo...