William T. Pizzi here argues that what they perceive is in fact exactly
what Americans have: a trial system that places far too much emphasis on
winning and not nearly enough on truth, one in which the abilities of a
lawyer or the composition of a jury may be far more important to the
outcome of a case than any evidence. Acting as an informal tour guide
and bringing to bear his experiences as both insider and outsider,
prosecutor and academic, Pizzi here exposes the structural fault lines
of our trial system and its paralyzing obsession with procedure,
specifically the ways in which lawyers are permitted to dominate trials,
the system's preference for weak judges, and the absurdities of plea
bargaining. By comparing and contrasting the U.S. system with that of a
host of other countries, Trials without Truth provides a clear-headed,
wide-ranging critique of what ails the criminal justice system - and a
prescription for how it can be fixed.