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Review Of Indefensible By David Feige

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David Feige’s Indefensible: One Lawyer’s Journey nto the Inferno of American Justice invites people from all walks of life to a second hand experience of the criminal justice system hard at work. What is most interesting about Feige’s work is its distinct presentation of the life of a public defender in the South Bronx. Instead of simply detailing out his experiences as a public defender, Feige takes it a step further and includes the experiences of his clients. Without the personal relationships that he carefully constructs with each of his defendants, Feige would not be able to argue that the criminal justice system is flimsy at best, decisions always riding on either the judge’s personal attitudes or the clients propensity towards plea bargaining. …show more content…

But somehow, when I present this same basic belief in the context of a secular humanist thrust into the brutal world of criminal justice, it loses its coherence. (Feige 238) Feige cites the criminal justice environment as “brutal,” which has been demonstrated time and time again in the book. He sums up his argument by reminding his audience that there exists no relative glamour in being a public defender: “We public defenders are a strange breed: passionate people spending ourselves in a Sisyphean struggle for justice in a system rigged to crush us” (Feige 268). Exceptionally thankful, then, should all people be for public defenders who spend day in and day out consistently doomed to fail. David Feige is no stranger to the system. His book is merely a condensed version of the reality behind both life in the Bronx and life in the criminal justice system. It becomes apparent very early on that one is doomed, even when given a decent judge. Feige basically condemns the system for virtual inability to win. If you do not have enough money for bail, then your only hope is plea-bargaining, which, if you truly are innocent, usually forces you into a state of perpetual guilt. The system, then, according to Feige is extremely flawed, typically costing the defendant and the defender his

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