Never has a book been more aptly titled than The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Criminal Justice System.  The problem is that you can’t tell from the title whether the complete idiot is meant to refer to the reader or the author.  The book was written by Robin Sax:

[A]n Assistant District Attorney in Los Angeles County where she specializes in sex crimes against children. When she is not in court, she is on television as a legal analyst and commentator covering criminal cases and trials. Robin is also a lecturer at UCLA’s Paralegal Program, and an adjunct professor at Cal State.

California criminal defense lawyers may wish to make note of this bio when considering hiring any paralegals out of UCLA.  There may be some re-training to do.  This is the same Robin Sax who wrote Predators and Child Molesters: What Every Parent Needs to Know to Keep Kids Safe, which received a rave review from Nancy Grace.

When I received my (FCC take note) free review copy, I approached it with extreme curiosity.  While there’s no doubt that the public could use an “idiot’s guide” to the criminal justice system, there was an obvious concern about one written by a prosecutor.  Would it be a bit one-sided?

As it turns out, yes, yes it was.  More than a bit.  Note this perspective set forth in the introduction:

We’ll look over the shoulder of the police as they investigate a crime, find out why and when they get search and arrest warrants, and find out why they always give those Miranda warnings to a suspect…

After the defendant is charged, the trial begins.  We’ll cover the actual trial process, from bail to jail.

Notice anything peculiar in how Sax sees the process?  In most books, even those I don’t care for, I almost invariably find aspects worthy of some praise, at least for the thought provoked.  This is possibly the first book I have ever read that, almost line by line, was wrong.  But it is available on Kindle, if that makes a difference.

My approach to this book was to consider how one might explain a complex, often contradictory system, to people who want to, but don’t, really understand its mechanics.  I tried not to read this book as a lawyer, but as a person who knew nothing of the system but wanted to learn.  The problem is that anyone who reads this book will come away with no more knowledge about the system than when they started, but will in fact believe they know something when they have been grossly misled.  Any layman reading this book will end up worse off than when they began.  It’s that bad.

I could dedicate a great deal of time to explaining, almost line by line, chapter and verse, what’s wrong with this book.  It’s just not worth that much of my time.  As I am politically against burning books, I won’t suggest it.  Bury it.  Bury it deep.  Oh what the heck, if ever a book needed burning, this is it.