BOOKS: Quest for Justice — Defending the Damned

In his book, “Quest for Justice: Defending the Damned,” Richard Jaffe explores the problems of the American death penalty system through his experience as a capital defense attorney in Alabama. During the past twenty years, Jaffe has helped secure the release of three death row inmates: Randall Padgett and Gary Drinkard, who were fully exonerated, and James Cochran, who was cleared of murder charges, but pleaded guilty to a related robbery charge. In his book, Jaffe wrote, “I always keep in mind the maxim that history will judge a society by the way it treats its weakest and most vulnerable. Although most would assume that applies to the poor and the elderly, all one has to do is look at those who end up on death row: an overwhelming number are poor, disenfranchised and suffer from some mental defect or even brain damage.” Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., a Harvard Law Professor, said of Quest for Justice, “This book tells the stories of people once convicted and sentenced to death and later acquitted of the same charges. It tells how it happened, shows the criminal courts are fallible and that poor people facing the death penalty may live or die depending on the competence and dedication of the lawyers appointed to defend them.”

(J. Reeves, “Alabama attorney questions death penalty in new book,” New Haven Register, January 29, 2012; DPIC posted Mar. 24, 2014; New Horizon Press (2012)). See Books and Innocence.