Unequal verdicts

Description

The crime shocked the nation: a young, successful woman jogging in Central Park was brutally bludgeoned, raped, and left for dead. Hours later, the police arrested five suspects, and then, after rounds of questioning, obtained videotaped confessions from several black and Hispanic teenagers. From the moment Elizabeth Lederer was assigned to the case, the soft-spoken, tough-minded prosecutor was determined to indict and convict the perpetrators. Even with the confessions. Proving rape would be incredibly difficult. The victim could remember nothing of the incident. Witnesses could testify only to parts of the case. The physical evidence was inconclusive. Timothy Sullivan, former editor of Manhattan Lawyer and now news editor at Courtroom Television Network, takes us to the core of the Central Park Jogger trials. He shows how Lederer reconstructed the crime and other attacks that night by cross-referencing interviews with gang members. Police, victims and other witnesses to indict ten suspects. Sullivan explores how Lederer and her associates in the district attorney's office planned their strategy, how they dealt with the often contradictory testimony of the suspects and the threats from the defendants' supporters, who gathered in and around the courtroom. Some of the defense lawyers put up spirited fights; others made elementary errors. Under pressure and media scrutiny, and with such problematic. Evidence, every one of Lederer's decisions had dramatic consequences. Relying on a complex theory of accomplice liability, Lederer obtained rape convictions against four of the accused and convictions on lesser charges against others, including the alleged ringleader. After covering both trials and reviewing the transcripts, including the arguments at the bench and in the judge's chambers not heard by the jury or the press, the author conducted extensive interviews with. The jurors. Sullivan not only gives the most complete picture of this celebrated case and how it was fought and decided but also lays out the complex anatomy of the crime of rape and the laws that concern it. Unequal Verdicts is a tense courtroom drama and an important study of our system of justice. It is an unforgettable lesson.

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