On October 26, Paul Cassell, Professor of Law at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, published a review of William J. Stuntz’s book The Collapse of American Criminal Justice in The Wall Street Journal.
Stuntz, a retired Harvard law professor, died earlier this year of colon cancer at the age of 52. The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, a critique of the rise of the American criminal justice system, has been described by critics as “a crowning achievement” and “[s]weeping, learned, and bracingly original,” among other accolades.
Cassell disagrees with some of the Stuntz’s conclusions. However, he ultimately praises the work: “[T]he overarching themes of The Collapse of American Criminal Justice deserve wide discussion, and the book as a whole can be rightly seen as the capstone to a distinguished legal career. Americans may debate whether our criminal-justice system has truly collapsed, but few would argue that it can’t be improved.”
Casell’s review is available on the Wall Street Journal website.