For the first time in our history, U.S. prisons house over a
million inmates, enough to populate a city larger than San
Francisco. Building prisons is the new growth industry, as the
American public reacts to a perceived increase in violence and
politicians take a hard line toward crime. But this eagerness to
construct more prisons raises basic questions about what the
community wants and will tolerate and what the Supreme Court will
sanction.
In this timely book, Norman Finkel looks at the relationship
between the "law on the books," as set down in the Constitution and
developed in cases and decisions, and what he calls "commonsense
justice," the ordinary citizen's notions of what is just and fair.
Law is an essentially human endeavor, a collection of psychological
theories about why people think, feel, and behave as they do, and
when and why we should find some of them blameworthy and
punishable. But is it independent of community sentiment, as some
would contend? Or, as Finkel suggests, do juries bring the
community's judgment to bear on the moral blameworthiness of the
defendant? When jurors decide that the law is unfair, or the
punishment inappropriate for a particular defendant, they have
sometimes nullified the law.
Nullification represents the jury's desire not to defeat but
"to perfect and complete" the law. It is the "no confidence" vote
of commonsense justice refusing to follow the path the law has
marked out--and pointing to a new path based on what seem to be
more just grounds. Finkel brings to life the story behind the jury
and judicial decisions, interweaving anecdotes, case law, and
social science research to present a balanced and comprehensive
view ofimportant legal and social policy issues.
General
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