New review from Rutgers University law school

“Criminal Law and Criminal Justice,” a web based magazine from Rutgers law school, has posted a review.

Here is an excerpt from the review:

Yet, Berryhill lends an air of humanity to the prison officials, too. He portrays Warden Pack, one of Brown’s alleged victims, somewhat sympathetically; recounting the day of Pack’s death, Berryhill notes that he was close to retirement, reminding the reader that Pack’s demise was not inevitable (no matter whose fault it was), and that “[a] Texas warden was always on call[,]” assuring the reader unfamiliar with prison life -– particularly prison life in Texas -– that he knows nothing about the world Pack lived in. Similarly, depicting the killing of Billy Moore (the other white prison official), Berryhill describes Moore’s brother running, falling to the ground, and hugging his lifeless brother as he shouts and cries out. It’s harder to hate someone who is loved.

Berryhill engages the reader by employing pop culture references relevant to Brown’s case: Nixon’s resignation, Vietnam, Dr. King’s speeches (one of Brown’s lawyers told the jury, “No lie can live forever”) and assassination, and folk singer Pete Seeger’s visit to the prison, to name a handful. He effectively identifies the obvious parallels between African slavery in the U.S. and the Texas prison system, and, employing that backdrop, potently casts Brown’s legal battle as the trial of a black field slave against his white master, with the black house slaves testifying against him.

I’m not sure about the phrase “pop culture,” is right, but the point is well intended. The writer disagrees with my contention early in the book that Brown’s acquittal signaled the end of Jim Crow justice, and he makes a good point that Texas has a ways to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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