FURTHER READING
There are so many interesting books about trials and about the law that it would be impossible to include all of them in this bibliography. Instead, Bernard J. Fried, Leemie Kahng, and I selected the following few books to share with you:
CAPOTE, TRUMAN. In Cold Blood. 1994. The re-creation of a 1959 murder in Kansas, including the investigation, capture, trial, and execution of the perpetrators.
ENGLISH, T J. Born to Kill: The Rise and Fall of America’s Bloodiest Asian Gang. 1996.
———. The Westies: Inside Hell’s Kitchen, Inside the Mob. 1993.
GOODMAN, JAMES E. Stories of Scottsboro. 1995. The tale of nine black youths falsely accused and tried for the rape of two white women in 1931.
HARR, JOHNATHAN. A Civil Action. 1995. The fascinating true story of a civil trial.
KLUGER, RICHARD. Simple Justice. 1997. The history of Brown v. Board of Education, the case that ended segregation in the public schools.
LAWRENCE, JEROME, AND ROBERT E. LEE. Inherit the Wind. 1982. Darwin’s theory of evolution is put on trial.
LEE, HARPER. To Kill a Mockingbird. 1999. A novel set in Alabama in which a white lawyer is appointed to defend a black defendant accused of rape.
LEWIS, ANTHONY. Gideon’s Trumpet. 1989. A classic. Insight into the workings of the Supreme Court in granting protection to criminal defendants.
MAAS, PETER. Serpico. 1997. The story of Frank Serpico, a police officer who exposed bad cops.
MELVILLE, HERMAN. Billy Budd. 1998. A novel about an envious man whose conduct leads to a trial for treason of a handsome sailor.
TRAVER, ROBERT. Anatomy of a Murder. 1983. Another courtroom classic novel.
TUROW, SCOTT. One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School. 1997.
WELLMAN, FRANCIS L. The Art of Cross Examination. 1998. Techniques for different kinds of cross-examinations.
The following are young-adult books that deal with criminal trials and legal issues (with many thanks to Eliza Dresang for helping to research this list):
BODE, JANET, AND STAN MACK. Hard Time: A Real Life Look at Juvenile Crime and Violence. 1996.
MYERS, WALTER DEAN. Monster. 1999. A sixteen-year-old is on trial for murder in this novel.
———.Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom. 1998.
NICHOLS, JOAN KANE. A Matter of Conscience: The Trial of Anne Hutchinson. 1993.
NUNEZ, SANDRA JOSEPH, AND TRISH NUNEZ. And Justice for All: The Legal Rights of Young People. 1997. An ACLU handbook for young Americans.
PASCOE, ELAINE. America’s Courts on Trial: Questioning Our Legal System. 1997.
RAPP, ADAM. The Buffalo Tree. 1997. A novel set inside a juvenile detention center.