The Humanity of Justice, by: Burke E Strunsky

Website design By BotEap.com“The Humanity of Justice” is possibly the best book I have read on the modern American justice system. Burke E. Strunsky, drawing on his own experience as a senior deputy district attorney in Southern California, frames it this way: In a democracy, the justice system should not be just the objective interpretation of the laws by professionals. and the systematic distribution of punishments based on precedent The justice system is also a continuous search for what justice means. After reading Chapter 4, “The Jury: The Heart of American Justice,” I had a renewed appreciation of the jury system as a quintessential component of a democracy. The jury is the “we” in “we the people.” In other words, the people have the responsibility and the honor of deciding what justice is. Therefore, justice is a reflection of the moral will of the people. This book is about people: humanistic qualities and the components of our justice system, but it is also a compelling argument that human emotions are a necessary complement to logic and reason in deciding the psychological and sociological implications of crime, punishment and cultural analysis.

Website design By BotEap.comStrunsky does not baffle the reader with romanticizations of courtroom drama and the intricacies of the law that one might find in a Hollywood crime drama or law class, respectively. It is a demystification, but illuminating. While this seems like an overzealous or glorifying review, the book deserves this praise because it integrates justice and the role of humanity itself within the ongoing project of American society as the pursuit of justice. By the time he finishes reading it, he will surely gain a better understanding of the American justice system and be begged to look at real and fictional criminal cases with more critical eyes. It might consider, or reconsider, the very idea of ​​justice, not just as an abstract signifier adrift, plucked from jurisprudence and dispassionately applied to subsequent crimes, but rather as what it actually is in a democratic justice system: something” we the people” is reconstructed with each particular case. Strunsky provides ethical and practical commentary by discussing some of his past cases (often brutal and horrific crimes that he has prosecuted). This comment never seems partisan and is always an elucidation. In other words, he doesn’t dazzle you with incomprehensible court jargon; he explains it. For example, instead of using tactics to “trick” the jury into seeing a case his way, he explains (often misunderstood) jargon like “permanent conviction” and “reasonable doubt” so the jury knows exactly what the court is talking about. He wants the jury (and all citizens) to recognize their individual roles in a social dynamic, to think like humans (hence the title).

Website design By BotEap.comAmong these broad contexts of justice and humanity, are the cases themselves. Some problems in the examples discussed are: flaws in capital punishment, the hypocrisy of the clergy-penitent privilege, and the effective use of narrative in arguing the case. Strunsky makes the argument that we can improve these and other issues with a common sense (humanistic) approach to the pursuit of justice. Strunsky also spends considerable time on crime prevention: socially in terms of gun control (a common sense look at this controversial topic), but also the economic, individual, and psychological precursors to crime: from prenatal care to age adult. Strunsky brings what I believe to be a necessarily subjective human spirit to complement what is often thought of as an objective institution, set in stone.