Conviction Machine
Standing Up to Federal Prosecutorial Abuse
Published on 18. February 2020
224 pages
978-1-59403-804-4 (ISBN)
Description
In 2009, Harvey A. Silverglate, a prominent criminal defense and civil liberties lawyer, published his landmark critique of the federal criminal justice system, Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent. In 2014, Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor in three districts under nine United States Attorneys from both political parties and who has been lead counsel in 500 federal appeals, published her landmark indictment of the system, Licensed To Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice, after she witnessed appalling abuses by prosecutors-more than a decade after she entered private practice. Now these two leading authorities have combined their knowledge, experiences, and talents to produce a much-needed and long-awaited blueprint for reforming the way business is conducted within the Department of Justice and in the federal criminal courts. Both Powell and Silverglate decided to join forces to write this essential and long-awaited book in order to answer the questions and the challenges that each of them has faced over the past several years: "OK," they've been told. "We understand your criticisms. Now how about telling us what has to be done to restore justice to federal criminal justice." This collaboration is their response.
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Persons
Harvey A. Silverglate is counsel to Boston's Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP, specializing in criminal defense, civil liberties, and academic freedom/student rights law. He is founder and member of the board of directors of FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). Silverglate has been published in the National Law Journal, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Book Review, the Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He is author of The Shadow University with Alan Charles Kors.
Sidney Powell is a former federal prosecutor in three districts across the country for nine United States Attorneys for both political parties. For more than 20 years, she has represented individuals, corporations, and governments in federal appeals in complex commercial litigation. She has practiced law, primarily in the Fifth Federal Circuit for decades. She has been lead counsel in more than 500 federal appeals-350 of them as an Assistant United States Attorney and Appellate Section Chief in the Western and Northern Districts of Texas. She is a past president of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit, and a member of the American Law Institute. It was from her experience in several of her cases that she felt compelled to write and self-publish Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice after seeing a core group of federal prosecutors break all the rules, make up crimes, hide evidence, and send innocent people to prison. The book-a 5-star nonfiction national bestseller-reads like a legal thriller, but it names the prosecutors who then rose to positions of great power and the judges who turned a blind eye to their abuses of unfettered power. She continues to write articles on government misconduct and prosecutorial misconduct for the Daily Caller, the Observer, the Hill, Fox News, and other outlets, and she appears frequently on multiple television stations as a legal commentator.
Sidney Powell is a former federal prosecutor in three districts across the country for nine United States Attorneys for both political parties. For more than 20 years, she has represented individuals, corporations, and governments in federal appeals in complex commercial litigation. She has practiced law, primarily in the Fifth Federal Circuit for decades. She has been lead counsel in more than 500 federal appeals-350 of them as an Assistant United States Attorney and Appellate Section Chief in the Western and Northern Districts of Texas. She is a past president of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit, and a member of the American Law Institute. It was from her experience in several of her cases that she felt compelled to write and self-publish Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice after seeing a core group of federal prosecutors break all the rules, make up crimes, hide evidence, and send innocent people to prison. The book-a 5-star nonfiction national bestseller-reads like a legal thriller, but it names the prosecutors who then rose to positions of great power and the judges who turned a blind eye to their abuses of unfettered power. She continues to write articles on government misconduct and prosecutorial misconduct for the Daily Caller, the Observer, the Hill, Fox News, and other outlets, and she appears frequently on multiple television stations as a legal commentator.
