EARLY REVIEWS OF With Justice For Some
by Lise Pearlman
Armed with a razor-sharp legal mind and imbued with a sense of fairness for all, retired Judge Lise Pearlman examines a dozen landmark trials in U.S. history in With Justice for Some. At the same time, the author paints a searing portrait of a society divided by class, caste, race and creed. Many, but not all, of the leading historical figures in this book, including Sacco and Vanzetti and “the Scottsboro Boys,” are members of minority groups or people of color. With a keen sense of balance, the author also exhumes the trials, and explores the tribulations of millionaire Harry K. Thaw, pro-Nazi celebrity Charles Lindberg and the legendary gamblers who fixed the 1919 World Series. With Justice for Some ought to be read, enjoyed, studied and heralded by lawyers, judges, defendants and fans of legendary lawyers such as Clarence Darrow . . .
Jonah Raskin, author of A Terrible Beauty: The Wilderness of American Literature
Anyone interested in history, courtroom drama or criminal justice should read this!
Barry Scheck, Co-Director of The Innocence Project
With Justice for Some is an expertly curated tour through some of our nation’s greatest legal scandals, offering dramatic accounts, vivid sketches of scoundrels and heroes, and keen insights not only into our history but contemporary events. By turns shocking and reassuring -- a pleasure to read.
Seth Rosenfeld, investigative journalist and author of Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power
WITH JUSTICE FOR SOME
Lise Pearlman is also the acclaimed author of
The Sky’s the Limit: People v. Newton, the REAL Trial of the 20th Century?
[Regent Press 2012]
A history of the American 20th century that compares the
Newton trial to other headline trials from 1901 to 2000.
American Justice on Trial: People v. Newton
[Regent Press 2016]
The Sky’s the Limit was awarded:
U.S. BOOK NEWS 2013 / First Place: Law
IBPA AWARD BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 2013 / Silver Award: Multiculturalism
INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2013 / Finalist: U.S. History
American Justice on Trial was awarded:
INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2017 / Finalist: U.S. History
WITH JUSTICE FOR SOME
Politically Charged Criminal Trials in The Early 20th Century That Helped Shape Today’s America
LISE PEARLMAN
Copyright © 2017 by Lise Pearlman
PAPERBACK:
ISBN 13: 978-1-58790-410-3
ISBN 10: 1-58790-410-1
E-BOOK
ISBN 13: 978-1-58790-412-7
ISBN 10: 1-58790-412-8
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2017946334
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Much of the material in this book first appeared in
The Sky’s the Limit: People v. Newton The REAL Trial of the 20th Century? Originally copyrighted © 2012 by Lise Pearlman
Printed in the U.S.A.
REGENT PRESS
Berkeley, California
DEDICATION
With Justice for Some is dedicated to victims of hate crimes throughout America’s history, the Good Samaritans who came to their defense, and those among us who have overcome mutual distrust to embrace each other -- “We the People of the United States” seeking to form “a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”
This book is also dedicated to all those who risked their lives and who continue to put their lives on the line to preserve our American experiment in democracy from all enemies foreign and domestic. Pakistani-American lawyer Khzir Khan challenged all of us native-born Americans on our knowledge of the U.S. Constitution at the Democratic Presidential Convention in Philadelphia in July 2016. He spoke with passion about his adopted country after a short film honored the life of his heroic son Army Captain Humayun Khan, who posthumously received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for making the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq in 2004. How many of us could assure Humayun Khan’s grieving Gold Star parents today that we have even read the Preamble to our Constitution, to say nothing of its entire contents, including the Bill of Rights?
CONTENTS
In February 2015 FBI Chief James Comey acknowledged past discrimination and abusive treatment of minorities by both federal and state law enforcement and invited us all to reexamine our cultural inheritance with fresh eyes. Hate crimes still occur, though with less frequency and with more condemnation; progress is being made. This book illustrates what Washington super lawyer Edward Bennett Williams asserted over 50 years ago in One Man’s Freedom, that the individual civil liberties we cherish in the United States evolved in our criminal courtrooms, all too often with minority defendants on trial for their lives.
The Assassination of President McKinley
Buffalo, New York – September, 1901
Anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots the newly reelected Republican Commander-in-Chief whom Hearst papers had vilified as the “tool of the money-hungry trusts.” As the police hold off would-be lynchers, nationally acclaimed Up From Slavery author Booker T. Washington sees this as a teaching moment and urges Americans to give Czolgosz a fair trial. Czolgosz gets at least the form of a trial; lynching elsewhere continues unabated.