Almost 70 years ago Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote there ''can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.” In The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts, legendary death penalty defense attorney Stephen Bright and legal scholar James Kwak show the myriad ways the US criminal legal system fails to live up to this ideal of fairness:

• Innocent people are condemned to death and convicted of crimes because they cannot afford lawyers and because of the color of their skin.

• Racial discrimination in jury selection perpetuates all-white juries even in communities that have substantial Black and Latino populations.

• People with mental disorders are locked up in jails and prisons instead of given the treatment they need.

• Poor people are processed through many courts with little or no legal representation in an assembly-line fashion.

• And many courts act as centers of profit whose main purpose is to raise money by imposing fines on the most vulnerable in their community and jailing them when they cannot pay. 

Bright and Kwak also see the promise of meaningful change on the horizon. They point to jurisdictions that have abandoned the death penalty and see a future where it will remain in only the most ardent holdouts; to states that require full disclosure of police and prosecution files; to public defender offices that provide people accused of crimes with zealous representation; to courts that have recognized racial discrimination and adopted remedies to prevent it; to places have reduced the use of cash bail and stopped imposing fines and fees on people who cannot afford them; and to a comprehensive mental health center that is an alternative to jail.

The Fear of Too Much Justice is a timely and trenchant look at the numerous injustices occurring in criminal courts today and a practical look at how they can be corrected to create a brighter and more equitable future.