Βooks
Description
Crimes and Punishments: Entering the Mind of a Sentencing Judge provides a cross-section of different crimes for which Judge Frederic Block sentenced a convicted criminal. Go into the Judge's private thoughts and doubts as to whether the right sentence was imposed. The book shows what sentencing is all about, and how at least one federal judge deals with this awesome aspect of his judicial responsibilities.
The government has no power greater than to take away a person’s freedom or even life. We trust our judges to balance justice and mercy to arrive at an appropriate sentence when a person has been convicted of a crime. Yet to a large extent, how a judge goes about this process is invisible to the lawyers in a case, the public, and even to the criminal defendant being sentenced. To be sure, judges often give reasons for their sentences, such as explaining when their sentence is dictated by a statute requiring a mandatory minimum sentence or how the punish-ment fits under the sentencing guidelines. But the human dimension of this - how a judge actually balances justice and mercy, what a judge feels in putting a person in prison for a long time or condemning a person to death - is rarely publicly explored.
Judge Frederic Block, a long-time federal district court judge, has written a book which describes the experience of a human being punishing other human beings. Judge Block does this by telling the stories of some of the cases that he has handled since coming on the bench in 1994. Each of the cases is compelling and Judge Block is a great storyteller. Each evokes important issues concerning our crim-inal justice system. Judge Block is candid in sharing his thinking and his feelings as he approached imposing punishments in these instances. He is remarkably self-reflective, often describing his concerns that his religion or the unfounded accusations against him or his recent reading might be unduly influencing the sentences he is imposing. Along the way, he tells us a lot about the workings of the federal courts and also about his life.
This is a book that can be enjoyed simply for its stories and its humanity. It is about the crimes people commit and what a judge considers in punishing them. It is accessible to lawyers and non-lawyers alike.
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Description
Race to Judgment is a work of “reality fiction” that takes a hard look at the seething racial tensions and political corruption in New York City.The story tracks the meteoric rise of Ken Williams, an African-American attorney and civil rights advocate, as he seeks to unseat the corrupt Brooklyn DA responsible for a spate of phony convictions against black defendants. Unfortunately for Mr. Williams, he will soon find out that his passion for challenging the powers that be can be extremely dangerous business. This character is loosely based on the the reallife former Brooklyn DA, Ken Thompson, who tragically passed away in 2016 at the age of fifty.
In his spare time, Ken Williams is also a musician who plays jazz piano and composes country songs that he performs in local bars. The actual songs were composed by the author, and the sheet music is included in the book; recordings will also be available for download. Populated by the types of larger-than-life characters that have long made New York City a place that captures people’s imaginations around the globe, Race to Judgment is an eyes-wideopen thrill ride through the city that never sleeps.
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Description
An Inside Look at the Life and Work of a Federal Trial Judge. Written for the legal community and the general public, this book explains, in practical terms, the perspective behind some of the most newsworthy and sensational cases of the last 20 years.
Few, if any, judges have commented on the cases that have appeared before them.
Judge Block critiques some of the historical practices of the legislature and the bench; educates readers about the death penalty, racketeering, gun laws, drug laws, discrimination laws, race riots, terrorism, and foreign affairs; and intimates the more humble aspects of being on the bench, e.g. the choice to use humor, death threats against members of the bench, brushes with celebrities, witnessing how popular sentiment can override the facts of a case, racist underpinnings of the drug laws, and more
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