ILLUSION OF JUSTICE

A defense attorney from the trial made famous in Making a Murderer tells his story.

From the beginning of his “Opening Statement,” first-time author Buting commands attention with his account of Steven Avery’s trial. The author recounts how, as he sat in the office of his co-counsel, Dean Strang, they received word that Avery’s nephew had confessed to helping Avery commit murder. It is in the context of this first phone call that Buting makes clear his passion as a defense lawyer and his justifiable anger with a system that does not, as he points out later, consider those accused of crimes as “innocent until proven guilty.” Avery had already spent 18 years in prison for a sexual assault that DNA evidence later proved he didn’t commit. Once charged with murder, Buting and Strang came to his aid believing that local law enforcement officials were biased against him. The author uses his expertise to make a convincing case, laying out shoddy police work, strange coincidences, and impossible-to-believe evidence that will have even the most anti–conspiracy theory readers thinking that it could have been a frame job. But he doesn’t stop with Avery’s case. Buting gives supporting evidence from other cases he’s worked or knows well, showing consistently how easy it is for police and prosecutors to fixate on the wrong suspect in a rush to solve crimes or without noticing their own bias. To his credit, while the author cuts the justice system no slack for its deep-seated problems, he also makes sure to repeat that it is a systemic issue and that most police, prosecutors, and judges are not out to hurt suspects. Without muddying the waters with excessive legalese, Buting presents a compelling portrait of the mechanisms of building a murder defense.

A fantastic look behind the scenes of the U.S. justice system.