Reviews of my late friend William Stuntz's magnum opus The Collapse of American Criminal Justice
Although Stuntz lost his struggle with cancer last year, we are fortunate that he lived long enough to complete his masterwork: The Collapse of American Criminal Justice. The book weaves into a grand narrative of remarkable breadth and learning the various themes his prior scholarship explored. Collapse gives us a long, hard look at the criminal justice system, both as it now exists and how it has developed over time – and, as the title implies, the picture isn’t pretty. ...
It is only by reforming the system that we can hope to reduce crime and maximize liberty and justice for all – and that, we should keep in mind, is the ultimate goal of a criminal justice system, and of a free society, worthy of the name.
Jonathan Jacobs writes:
The late William Stuntz’s The Collapse of American Criminal Justice manages to explanatorily and thematically link a wide range of issues concerning criminal justice, integrating aspects of constitutional law, criminal procedure, demographic facts, prosecutorial discretion, jury selection, plea-bargaining, mandatory sentences, and other matters. Integrating all of those issues without the focus being blurred or the argument sprawling messily is an admirable achievement.
