Shielded from Justice

Shielded from Justice
Author: Allyson Collins
Publisher: Human Rights Watch
Total Pages: 460
Release: 1998
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781564321831

Race as a Factor

Official Negligence

Official Negligence
Author: Lou Cannon
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 744
Release: 1997
Genre: Current Events
ISBN:

How Rodney King and the riots changed Los Angeles and the LAPD.

Murder in Brentwood

Murder in Brentwood
Author: Mark Fuhrman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2014-10-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1621573222

For audiences of the popular FX television series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, based on Jeffrey Toobin's The Run of His Life and starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., John Travolta, David Schwimmer, and Courtney B. Vance. Named on Vogue Magazine's "American Crime Story Reading List" as one of the "eight definitive books on the trial of the century." Twenty years ago, America was captivated by the awful drama of the O.J. Simpson trial. The Simpson "Dream Team" legal defense had a seemingly impossible task: convincing a jury that their client was innocent of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. In order for O.J. Simpson to get away with murder, the defense attorneys had to destroy the reputation of Mark Fuhrman, a brilliant Los Angeles detective who was the lead on the murder scene and had collected overwhelming physical evidence against Simpson. Now Fuhrman tells his side of the story in the #1 New York Times bestseller Murder in Brentwood, a damning exposé that reveals why and how Simpson's prosecution was bungled. Fuhrman offers a sincere mea culpa for allowing his personal mistakes to become a focal point of the defense's strategy but also stands by the evidence he collected, writing: "One thing I will not apologize for is my policework on the O.J. Simpson case." With Fuhrman's own hand-drawn maps of the crime scene, his reconstruction of the murders, and interrogation transcripts, Murder in Brentwood is the book that sets the record straight about what really happened on June 12, 1994—and reveals why the O.J. Simpson trial was such a catastrophe.

Conviction

Conviction
Author: Leonard Levitt
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2013-02-26
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0062039008

On October 30, 1975, fifteen-year-old Martha Moxley headed home from Halloween Eve antics with her Greenwich, Connecticut, neighbors Tommy and Michael Skakel. She never made it. Her brutal murder with a golf club in her own backyard made national headlines. But for years no one was arrested, despite troubling clues pointing to the Skakels, a rich and powerful family related to the Kennedys. After the police department's first unsuccessful attempts to catch the killer, the case lay dormant, and the culprit remained free. Enter Leonard Levitt. In 1982, the Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time newspapers asked investigative reporter Levitt to look into the murder and the undying rumors of a cover-up. Levitt soon uncovered groundbreaking information about how the police had bungled the investigation, and he learned that Tommy and Michael had lied about their activities on the night of the murder. But Levitt's articles about his findings -- and the haunting questions they raised -- almost never saw the light of day. For years, Levitt's superiors mysteriously refused to publish the stories. Convinced that the Moxley family deserved the peace and closure they had so long been denied, Levitt fought desperately to keep his discoveries alive. Finally, after Levitt's first article appeared, the case was reopened. Enter Frank Garr. As the newly appointed investigator on the Moxley case, the seasoned Greenwich detective doggedly pursued unexplored leads and became increasingly convinced that for over a decade, his colleagues had been pursuing the wrong suspects. At first mistrustful of one another, as reporters and detectives often are, Levitt and Garr became friends, encouraging each other in their quest for the truth as the obstacles against them piled up. In 2002, more than twenty-five years after Moxley's death, a shocked world watched as Michael Skakel was convicted of the murder, thanks largely to the evidence Garr alone had marshaled against him. Now, for the first time, Leonard Levitt tells the amazing true story of Garr's fight to solve the case and of how their friendship with each other, and with Martha Moxley's mother, Dorthy, sustained them over the years. A riveting, suspenseful drama that unfolds like a mystery novel, this incredible memoir also reveals how a police officer and a reporter refused to give up, and how they helped justice to prevail, against all odds.

A Simple Act of Murder

A Simple Act of Murder
Author: Mark Fuhrman
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007-12-26
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 9780061374616

On November 22, 1963, a murder was committed in Dallas, Texas. Nearly 80 percent of the American people don't believe the victim was killed by a lone gunman. The House Assassinations Committee determined it was the work of "a conspiracy," yet no conspirators were ever identified or brought to justice. For more than forty years the case has remained unsolved—until now. Mark Fuhrman has cracked some of the best-known, most puzzling crimes in American history. In A Simple Act of Murder, he investigates the tragedy that rocked a nation: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Cutting through the myths and misinformation, Fuhrman focuses on the hard evidence, unveiling a major clue that was ignored for more than four decades—a breakthrough that will change the ongoing debate forever. Once you read this book, you'll know definitively who killed JFK.

The Lazarus Files

The Lazarus Files
Author: Matthew McGough
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Total Pages: 609
Release: 2019-04-30
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 0805095594

A deeply-reported, riveting account of a cold case murder in Los Angeles, unsolved until DNA evidence implicated a shocking suspect – a female detective within the LAPD’s own ranks. On February 24, 1986, 29-year-old newlywed Sherri Rasmussen was murdered in the home she shared with her husband, John. The crime scene suggested a ferocious struggle, and police initially assumed it was a burglary gone awry. Before her death, Sherri had confided to her parents that an ex-girlfriend of John’s, a Los Angeles police officer, had threatened her. The Rasmussens urged the LAPD to investigate the ex-girlfriend, but the original detectives only pursued burglary suspects, and the case went cold. DNA analysis did not exist when Sherri was murdered. Decades later, a swab from a bite mark on Sherri’s arm revealed her killer was in fact female, not male. A DNA match led to the arrest and conviction of veteran LAPD Detective Stephanie Lazarus, John’s onetime girlfriend. The Lazarus Files delivers the visceral experience of being inside a real-life murder mystery. McGough reconstructs the lives of Sherri, John and Stephanie; the love triangle that led to Sherri’s murder; and the homicide investigation that followed. Was Stephanie protected by her fellow officers? What did the LAPD know, and when did they know it? Are there other LAPD cold cases with a police connection that remain unsolved?

The Best Defense

The Best Defense
Author: Alan Dershowitz
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 463
Release: 1983-05-12
Genre: Law
ISBN: 039471380X

"Anyone interested in the true merits of criminal law and very fine writing must read Alan Dershowitz's book." --Truman Capote In this tell-all legal memoir, Alan Dershowitz describes his most famous, and infamous, cases and clients. In the process, takes a critical, informed look at a legal system that he regards as deeply corrupt.