THE WORST THING WE'VE EVER DONE

A White woman reflects on her role in the questionable conviction of a Black man for murder in this nonfiction debut.

In Pennsylvania alone, more than 1,000 people are serving sentences of life without parole for murder in cases in which they did not directly kill a person but were accomplices in a crime that led to a death. Of those convicted, 70% are Black, including Frederick Muhammed Burton, the central figure of this book. When author Menaker first encountered Burton as a juror in his 1976 murder trial, during which he was charged with acting as an accomplice in the murders of two prison wardens, she was a self-described naïve 24-year-old who grew up “in the 1950s and 1960s isolated in a world of Jewishness and white privilege.” While subsequent jury duty notifications “triggered” uncomfortable memories of the trial, it wasn’t until decades later that she fully came to terms with the ways her background and youth played a role in her support of a guilty verdict. This book covers Menaker’s own personal journey as she confronted systemic racism and America’s flawed criminal justice system. Menaker has spent recent years poring through archival evidence related to Burton’s conviction. She makes some startling discoveries, including claims that his lawyer in the 1976 trial may have been intoxicated during court appearances. In the same case in which she served as a juror, the author notes conflicting testimonies ignored at the time, confusion over the judge’s instructions to the jury, and a psychologically “traumatic” sequestering process that hampered the jury’s ability to productively debate. At times overly focused on tangential details concerning the author’s personal life, Menaker’s account is a concisely written and deeply personal look into the ways that individuals blinkered by their personal backgrounds may help to perpetuate systemic inequities.

A stirring, if occasionally self-indulgent, reexamination of a problematic murder trial.