Editorial Reviews
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Why are so many innocent people imprisoned in the United States, and why are so many of those wrongly convicted people unable to overturn their conviction? System Failure explains in 25 chapters how and why that has happened. Author James F. Love has extensive knowledge and keen insights about the inner workings of the legal system gained from his extensive experience as a top jailhouse lawyer involved for almost two decades in criminal and civil litigation. Love's accomplishments include being responsible for the reversal and new trial in four aggravated murder convictions in Ohio. System Failure is a must read for lawyers, law students, paralegals and laypersons concerned with preserving their rights.
About the Author
James F. Love has studied the law since 1990. Mr. Love was a published columnist for four years with Ohio S.O.R.T.'s magazine, The Challenger. He is a contributing writer for Justice:Denied - the magazine for the wrongly convicted. As a jailhouse lawyer Mr. Love has seven reported decisions from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and numerous other lower court reported decisions. He is responsible for the reversal and new trial in four aggravated murder convictions in Ohio since 1995. Mr. Love's personal convictions have been reversed twice. The trial court dismissed the indictment in February 2008. The prosecutor appealed, and in December 2008 the Court of Appeals reinstated the indictment. After the Ohio Supreme Court declined to review the appeals court ruling, Mr. Love filed a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. He is arguing that a third trial is barred by the U.S. Constitution's Double Jeopardy Clause. As of November 2009 the U.S. District Court has not issued its decision.
In a style of writing which is sharp, crisp, and proceeds with the impassioned eloquence and reasoned tone of the best of reporters, Mr. Love walks the reader through the self-perpetuating myths, the labyrinth, of the justice system, destroying long-standing platitudes and misconceptions at every turn of the page. How he has managed to accomplish this in the spirit of optimism often causes the book to be temporarily set aside and pondered.
Immediately, one thinks of the words of Margaret Meade: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
--Tom Krzywkowski
This review is from: System Failure: A Critique of the Judicial System of the United States (Paperback)
This review is from: System Failure: A Critique of the Judicial System of the United States (Paperback)
James Love knows the law like the air that we breathe. Incarcerated for a crime he did not commit, he has over the years spent countless hours of research in litigating his case and the cases of other wrongfully incarcerated inmates. His observations on the American judicial system's betrayal of the concept of fairness are illustrated with a wealth of hard-earned anecdotal and carefully documented evidence, interwoven with the fiber of historical perspective and startlingly common-sense solutions to a monumentally tragic state of affairs. In a style of writing which is sharp, crisp, and proceeds with the impassioned eloquence and reasoned tone of the best of reporters, Mr. Love walks the reader through the self-perpetuating myths, the labyrinth, of the justice system, destroying long-standing platitudes and misconceptions at every turn of the page. How he has managed to accomplish this in the spirit of optimism often causes the book to be temporarily set aside and pondered.
Immediately, one thinks of the words of Margaret Meade: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
--Tom Krzywkowski
This review is from: System Failure: A Critique of the Judicial System of the United States (Paperback)
The jury trial is the very keystone of the "common law" tradition we have inherited: the common law was not made by king or parliament, congress or president, but hammered out over the centuries by several courts making their decisions consistent. The citizen is entitled to all presumptions in a criminal trial (including the presumption that se is a reasonable citizen.)
How, then, does it come about that the citizens of these United States are convicted in greater numbers than those of any other nation? The notion has come to be widespread that "democracy" means majority domination: grand juries in particular are allowed to indict by mere majority. But the grand jury hears only the case of the prosecution: if the case is indeed good beyond a reasonable doubt, it must sound good beyond any imaginable doubt to the grand jury - it is palpably ridiculous to accept an indictment unless the grand jury was unanimous.
Once the case is tried in court, the prosecutor (who, under a republican form of government, must stand for election after a fixed term) is naturally anxious to make as strong a case as se can. And the prosecutor can draw upon the taxpayers' treasury to find evidence and precedents in hir favor: the citizen has to rely upon hir own resources.
Thus it is unsurprising that the imprisoned Love has encountered numerous (other) prison inmates who were unjustly and unjustifiably convicted.
His opus offers food for thought to every citizen!
You can write to the author at:
James F. Love
#329-475
P.O. Box 4501
Lima, Ohio 45802
How, then, does it come about that the citizens of these United States are convicted in greater numbers than those of any other nation? The notion has come to be widespread that "democracy" means majority domination: grand juries in particular are allowed to indict by mere majority. But the grand jury hears only the case of the prosecution: if the case is indeed good beyond a reasonable doubt, it must sound good beyond any imaginable doubt to the grand jury - it is palpably ridiculous to accept an indictment unless the grand jury was unanimous.
Once the case is tried in court, the prosecutor (who, under a republican form of government, must stand for election after a fixed term) is naturally anxious to make as strong a case as se can. And the prosecutor can draw upon the taxpayers' treasury to find evidence and precedents in hir favor: the citizen has to rely upon hir own resources.
Thus it is unsurprising that the imprisoned Love has encountered numerous (other) prison inmates who were unjustly and unjustifiably convicted.
His opus offers food for thought to every citizen!
You can write to the author at:
James F. Love
#329-475
P.O. Box 4501
Lima, Ohio 45802
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