Customer Reviews

Unequal Justice?: What Can Happen When People With Retardation or Other Developmental Disabilities Encounter the Criminal Justice Sysytem

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A man with an IQ of 49, who had confessed to a murder in Georgia, sat on the witness stand.
"Jerome, did you assasinate President Lincoln?"
"Yes," Jerome said.
"Did you assasinate President Kennedy?"
"Yes," Jerome said.

Incidents like this demonstrate that people with retardation or similar disabilities - whether they are guilty or innocent of the crimes they are accused of committing - often can be shockingly defenseless when caught in America's criminal justice system. Focusing on this tragic dilemma, Unequal Justice? helps readers address the critical question:

Did the system treat this person with disabilities as other citizens are treated whe charged with a crime?

Presenting actual criminal isues and cases involving people with disabilities, Unequal Justice? is a call for compassion in the face of a great, yet often overlooked, American problem. Or, as author Robert
Perske says, "Please see it as my flashlight, turned on for you and beaming its light into a few dark corners of "the system" into which these people have been taken."
--- from book's back cover