Until Proven Innocent - 9780312384869

“A masterful examination of the pathetic rush to judgment in the Duke rape case.” —John Grisham

The full story of the Duke Lacrosse case, by the authors who broke it

          In this American tragedy, Stuart Taylor, Jr., and KC Johnson argue, law enforcement, a campaigning prosecutor, biased journalists, and left-leaning academics repeatedly refused to pursue the truth while scapegoats were made of these young men, recklessly tarnishing their lives.
          Until Proven Innocent is the only book that covers all five aspects of the case (personal, legal, academic, political, and media) in a comprehensive fashion.  It is also the only book to include interviews with all three of the defendants, their families, and their legal teams. And now it includes an up-to-date epilogue detailing the aftershocks and conclusion of the case.
          Taylor and Johnson's coverage of the Duke case was the earliest, most honest, and most comprehensive in the country, and here they take on the idiocies and dishonesty of right- and left-wingers alike, shedding new light on the danger of a cultural tendency toward media-fueled travesties of justice. The context of the Duke case has vast import, and in its full telling, it is captivating nonfiction with broad political, racial, and cultural relevance to our times.

“Taylor and Johnson have made a gripping contribution to the literature of the wrongly accused.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Until Proven Innocent is a stunning book.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Vivid, at times chilling . . . their most biting scorn is aimed at the 'academic McCarthyism' that they say has infected top-rate American universities like Duke.” —Newsweek

“A superb new book . . . a book that not only reads like a legal thriller, but also exposes deep problems with America's legal system and academic culture.” —The Economist