The Prosecutors: A Year in the Life of a District Attorney's Office

by Gary Delsohn

Paper Book, 2003

Status

Available

Call number

345.794

Genres

Politics, Government, Law and Public Policy

Collection

Legal

Publication

Dutton Adult (2003), Hardcover, 400 pages

Description

Law. Crime. Nonfiction. Depicting American justice at its best and worst, The Prosecutors lifts the lid off today's legal system with details that are more shocking and graphic than any television show or bestselling novel. Allowed unprecedented access to spend a year inside an urban prosecutor's office, Gary Delsohn provides a riveting, behind-the-scenes look at how America's increasingly overburdened judicial system really functions. Seen through the eyes of the main characters in this true-life drama-John O'Mara, a tough, jaded homicide chief and Jan Scully, an accomplished, former sex crimes prosecutor who is now D.A.-The Prosecutors shows us these dedicated public servants at work. The cases they encounter within the year are as shocking as they are indelible.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member delphica

(#10 in the 2006 Book Challenge)
This is seriously the worst book I've read in a while. You know how when you have a lot of books, sometimes a book turns up in your house that you've never seen before? I found this recently while cleaning a closet and neither James nor I remembered it at all. This

is a journalistic (ha! ha!) style look at one year in the prosecutor's office in Sacramento. IT'S A GRAPHIC, BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM (the book cover proclaims). The year in question is 2001, so I kept at the book because it kept promising information about the Kathleen Soliah trial. The writing was so poor that it included things like "He called her two weeks after her murder to clarify her statement" (Really? What phone number didya use?) meaning that some guy from the sheriff's office called a female witness two weeks after the murder of a female victim. The only high point is that it contained some gems about the people in the Sacramento office, for example when a very open-and-shut murder came down the pike, the various prosecutors started jockeying to get the case. The head guy (I'm sure he has a title but whatever) decided to assign the case to the winner of a humorous essay contest, open to anyone who worked in the building with a law degree, including the interns. The essays were great, and I wish one of those people had written this book.

Grade: F
Recommended: Oh heavens no.

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LibraryThing member williamawright

I was truly disappointed that Bugliosi described this trash as a "must read for lawyers. As a 35-year veteran of criminal defense I found it a huge waste of time.

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