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Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice

Americans are taught that justice means fairness. They expect it from our legal system. “Equal Justice Under Law” is prominently inscribed on the Supreme Court. Yet law and justice in America are not necessarily the same thing. And they are certainly not applied in equal ways.

The disconnect between these realities and what Americans are taught about justice has led to great strife in our society. But what if everyone grew up understanding the limitations of our justice system, yet understood what it is striving to achieve? Through the Revolutionary War, historic cases, civil unrest, Broken Windows law enforcement, corrupt police and attorneys, and jury bias, the lens through which you see the American justice system is about to change, all as told by former Baltimore prosecutor –- Eric Oberer. It is time for a paradigm shift…

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Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

“A brisk legal summary that acknowledges the flaws of American criminal justice while also making a case that it may not be as dysfunctional as it looks.” –Kirkus Reviews

Feathered Quill

Reviewed by Rebecca Jane Johnson

Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice reveals why justice is impossible to achieve in the American legal system. The book opens with a consideration of the definition of justice. The author, Eric D. Oberer, argues that most Americans are under the impression that the legal system is supposed to find the truth, provide recourse, and offer fairness. But in creating the US justice system, the forefathers’ main concern was protecting citizens from abuse of power. Oberer observes that mass media, a lack of education, and misinformation from political propaganda have all contributed to a collective misperception that the legal system is supposed to deliver justice. Oberer’s purpose in writing this book is to confront and correct this misperception.

The book explores the argument of the forefather’s intentions that the legal system should always be sure that every citizen is extended the same constitutional rights. The foundation of jurisprudence in the United States was established in an atmosphere of rebellion against a tyrannical government. Constitutional rights are meant to assure that innocent people are not punished for crimes they did not commit. Often this assurance translates to instances where it is clear that someone is guilty of a crime, yet they are released from punishment because a technical misstep occurs during the painstaking due process of law. This book offers engrossing examples of famous criminal cases, including Massachusetts v. Lizzie Borden, Ohio v. Sam Sheppard, California v. O.J. Simpson and more. This is sure to appeal to readers who enjoy true crime as seen from a former Baltimore, Maryland, prosecutor’s perspective.

Oberer’s book is informative, not political. The reader will not find rhetoric that sensationalizes or demonizes the justice system here. Instead, this project educates and informs so as to encourage more realistic demands of the United States legal system. Yes, there is consideration of instances when citizens retaliate against unjust police tactics; examples include historically significant riots that broke out spanning from Harlem in 1964, after the murder of James Powell, up until the nationwide protests of the George Floyd murder in 2020. Riotous responses also suggest real miscarriages of justice have less to do with flaws in the legal system and more to do with fundamental biases, racism and discrimination, dirty politics, abuse of power, and flawed theories upon which law enforcement is based. Oberer discusses ways the Broken Windows theory accounts for disparities in justice for wealthier populations versus poorer populations. Based upon this theory, police presence in certain neighborhoods and police crackdown on petty crime have corroded into deep mistrust amongst citizens and law enforcement officers.

Following Oberer’s observations, it’s a mere hair’s breadth to expand his argument to claim that public trust in law enforcement is just as impossible to achieve as is justice in this country. So, this book does not offer much in the way of solutions but offers lots of nourishing food for thought. It’s readable, well-written, accessible and sensible. This is a great book to read as part of a civics curriculum or to be a well-informed citizen.

Quill says: For Americans seeking to confront flaws in the legal system, this book is a must-read.

Readers' Favorite

Reviewed by Stephanie Chapman

Eric D. Oberer uses his experience as a prosecutor to explain how injustice occurs in Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice: Why Justice is Hard to Find in America. The book is divided into four parts. The first explains the Constitution and the amendments that the book will focus on. These include the fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and fourteenth amendments. He uses the same cases that the Supreme Court relies on when rendering verdicts. Part two details several cases, including those of Lizzie Borden and O.J. Simpson, where the law worked against convicting potentially guilty defendants. The third section outlines the areas where applying the law is challenging either because of a lack of resources or social discontent. The final part introduces the perceptions of what most people believe and the unethical actions of some judicial officials.

Eric D. Oberer made this an easy-to-understand guide, explaining the multiple factors that go into applying the law. I discovered that in a criminal court, the law, not justice, determines how a case will turn out. It was easy to read which decisions served as the Supreme Court’s precedents, with a table at the end of the first part. I was astonished to learn that even the president cannot overturn the Supreme Court’s judgments. I liked how the author showed that television shows like CSI can be misleading. The definitions of legal terms are clear and concise. The information was presented logically, and there was no need to jump back and forth between cases. Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice is a great guide to understanding how the court system works and anyone who believes justice can prevail should read it.

Literary Titan

Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice: Why Justice is Hard to Find in America is an enlightening book about the criminal justice system in the United States and shows how it affects every citizen. This book is written in a straightforward manner, with the author highlighting and stressing the law, how justice is delivered and the impact it has on the average American. Author Eric D. Oberer reveals to the reader undisclosed issues, the role the justice system plays in delivering fair judgment, the level of integrity in the corridors of justice, and how critical persons and parties set the pace for budding legal minds. This is an illuminating book that clearly explains what ails the American justice system, and what can be done to improve the situation.

There are many things that make Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice a fascinating book. The complex rulings the author provides in the book are among the many items that I found fascinating. Readers are given a clear view of what happens in the courtroom, how the jury arrives at such rulings and why a number of rulings are more complex than others. Some of the rulings that I found to be interesting include Massachusetts v. Lizzie Borden, California Vs. O.J. Simpson, and Florida v. Casey Anthony. There are multiple other minor and major cases discussed in the book, all of which provide many lessons. In all these cases the author gives his unprejudiced opinion, and draws attention to crucial aspects of the cases and the rulings.

Many of the topics in this book are matters that are rarely taught in the classroom. The author gives the reader multiple perspectives, and allows the reader to choose for themselves what they deem is the ideal approach. Eric D. Oberer tackles theories that are not taught in academia, compares them to real life situations and engages the reader while doing it. Apart from learning about disparities in justice, the reader gets a feel of how magistrates, attorneys, and the entire legal framework operates.

Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice will open your mind and get you interested in the criminal justice system. Reading about law and justice has never been more intriguing. The author uses layman language and gives sensible explanations to his opinions. Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice is an informative read that I recommend to readers that are enthusiastic about the law and anyone looking for civic education.

Midwest Book Reviews

Unlike most critiques of America’s judicial system, Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice: Why Justice is Hard to Find in America does not assume a one-sided approach, but considers the problem of justice from a variety of viewpoints. It provides a huge service to law readers in exposing an array of opinions, precedents, and analyses from both sides of the legal bench, serving as a starting point of information for broader discussions about equity in judicial proceedings.

Eric D. Oberer comes not just from the usual worlds of academia or law, but spent much of his childhood in high-crime White and African-American neighborhoods. This lent his pursuit of legal work (as a “guns, drugs, and violent crimes” prosecutor in Baltimore) a special connection to street crime scenarios that allowed him to apply ideals of fundamental civil rights to scenarios of crime, punishment, redemption, and innocence. The history of America’s legal system and the evolution of the modern urban criminal justice system’s processes and patterns are nicely covered.

The survey probes definitions of evidence, reviews criminal investigations proceedings both within the court system and before and after its processes, and analyzes how miscarriages of justice are perceived and committed. Especially thought-provoking are connections between policing and racial perception which give rise to bigger pictures of social issues embedded in and reflected by criminal justice system operations. Footnoted references from the legal world accompany examples of court decisions, methods for generating arrests, and the limiting choices faced by the justice system in general and Baltimore City in particular: “Baltimore City could arguably move many more cases through the system if it hired more judges and court employees and built a new courthouse. But can you really bring thousands of citizens in each day for jury duty?”

That Courts of Law Not Courts of Justice proves as accessible to non-legal readers of social issues as it will to those studying criminal law and justice translates to a primer that should be in all kinds of collections, from law libraries and college student holdings to general-interest public libraries seeing patron interest in social and racial issues. Oberer’s history, filled with case histories, commentary, and connections between past and present American judicial evolutionary processes, is a powerful consideration of what the definition of how the ideal of “Equal Justice Under Law” actually translates in modern American society. It’s highly recommended reading for anyone either entering the justice system professionally or looking at its results from the outside.

–D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

Midwest Book Reviews

Oberer, who worked as a prosecutor in Baltimore, outlines famous American miscarriages of justice as well as incidents of police brutality, plea deals, and corruption.

The author, a lawyer and a former law clerk for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, briefly encapsulates weighty court-docket and true-crime material, showing the present state of American criminal justice. He defends the system by emphasizing how law and justice may not always seem to be the same thing, especially to crime victims. A rundown of basic rights under the U.S. Constitution is followed by quick, concise summaries of several well-known homicide cases, in which the author clearly explains the acquittal of seemingly guilty plaintiffs with strict interpretation of statutes and criminal procedure—a useful reminder of an oft-quoted dictum that it’s better that 100 wrongdoers go free than one innocent person be punished. A chronicle of both police brutality from the 1960s to 2020s and public reactions to George Floyd’s murder follows that readers will find dispiriting; Oberer puts them into perspective by backgrounding them against the once-trendy “broken windows” public-safety policy, which theorized that if officers punished minor infractions, crime rates and their societal effects would lessen. The book clearly shows that, in Baltimore, this strategy mostly fueled hatred of police among members of the Black community, who were chiefly victimized, and may have fueled corruption among cops and lawyers. The get-tough approach is also revealed to have overtaxed personnel and jury pools in urban areas, resulting in questionable plea deals, mistrials, and dismissals. Jurors bedazzled by Hollywood shows, the author asserts, have no clue how evidence and proof work in reality. It’s no wonder, then, that he rounds out his book with the insight that “Without a complete understanding of the American version of justice…Americans are often left frustrated, dismayed, and angry.” He ends with a straightforward exhortation to better education of the public and a scrutiny of policies in other countries, among which the American justice system ranks dismally.

A brisk legal summary that acknowledges the flaws of American criminal justice while also making a case that it may not be as dysfunctional as it looks.

Goodreads

“I love the way without bias he told the story then let the reader make up their mind. That is the mark of a truly talented author. I really enjoyed this book and highly, highly recommend it.” –Janalyn Prude

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