The Presumption of Guilt - 9780230103269

"A great teacher is one who seizes on every great teaching moment to explain and educate. Charles Ogletree is such a teacher. He has seized on the very public arrest of Professor Henry Louis `Skip' Gates to teach Americans important lessons about the Constitution, the continuing relevance of race in America, and the ease with which an incident can escalate into a major event. Ogletree was there, knows all the participants, and has written a brilliant book from which all Americans can learn."---Alan Dershowitz, author of The Trials of Zion

"The Presumption of Guilt is both informative and instructive. Informative because it provides a very accurate description of the events of that day and instructive because it identifies the critical areas which must be addressed in order to prevent racial profiling and other disparities in the criminal justice system."---Ronald E. Hampton, Executive Director, National Black Police Association

"Charles Ogletree possesses one of the most brilliant legal minds in American culture, and here he bridges the ivory tower academy and the messy world in a rare and unique manner. Don't miss this book." ---Cornel West, Princeton University

Henry Louis Gates Jr., a renowned Harvard professor acclaimed for his work on racial justice, was handcuffed and arrested on the front porch of his own home by a Cambridge police sergeant.

An incident that might have been a footnote to the day's police blotter if it had played out in another city or with another man erupted instead into a media firestorm. The arrest became representative of the tensions between black and white, police and civilian, and the privileged and less privileged in America. Here, Charles Ogletree, one of the country's foremost experts on civil rights, puts the now infamous event into the context of the complicated history of race, class, and crime in America.

Based on more than three decades of experience as a criminal defense lawyer and fellow Harvard professor, Ogletree, who acted as counsel to Gates, uses the episode as a lens through which to examine the challenges we face today on the long journey toward racial and legal equality. Arguing that the arrest was not an isolated incident, but rather part of a larger pattern within the criminal justice system, he draws on his study of the Rodney King case, personal knowledge of the Obamas, and interviews with scores of African American men to showcase a flawed system and a country struggling to reconcile its past in order to move forward.

With his signature voice and fair-minded approach, Ogletree engages in what is perhaps the most important dialogue among Americans today. When race, class, and the law collide, what steps do we take as a society to move from the presumption of guilt to the presumption of innocence? The Gates case inspired indignation and outrage on all sides of the argument. Charles Ogletree channels these complex emotions into an informed discussion about the realities and possibilities of race and justice in America.