Vol. 15 No.3 (March 2005), pp.225-226

DEFENDANT RIGHTS, by Hamid R. Kusha.  Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2004. 250pp. Hardcover.  $50.00.  ISBN 1057607-935-X.

Reviewed by Paul J. Weber, University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky.  Email: paulweber@louisville.edu .

DEFENDANT RIGHTS is a reference handbook that is part of the Contemporary World Issues Series published by ABC-CLIO. Other titles in the series are ANTISEMITISM, CIVIL LIBERTIES IN AMERICA, COUNTERTERRORISM, CYBERCRIME, DRUG USE, GLOBAL AIDS CRISIS, HEALTHCAREREFORM IN AMERICA, MEDIA AND AMERICAN COURTS, NATION-BUILDING, PROFILING AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN AMERICA, VOTING IN AMERICA, USA PATRIOT ACT, and WORLD POVERTY. Like the other books in the series, DEFENDANT RIGHTS is designed to provide an historical overview of the topic, contemporary issues and controversies, and a ready reference to major cases people and documents.

The organization of this book is a bit odd, but probably suited for its intended audience, Americans who are not trained in the law. The first chapter provides a history of defendant rights in the United States organized around constitutional amendments four through eight. Chapter Two then takes the reader through the various controversies inherent in law enforcement—police misconduct, exclusionary rules, actual versus legal guilt, beyond a reasonable doubt, burden of proof, prosecutorial discretion, and victim rights.

Chapter Three provides a longer chronology, beginning with the Dooms Law Era, from 560 to 975c.e. through the post-9/ll era. Chapter Four proved to be the most interesting to this reviewer. It provides a world perspective on defendant rights, beginning with the ancient Middle Eastern legal traditions and going through the Greco-Roman legal system and British Common Law. The second half of this chapter is devoted to explaining the Islamic Legal Tradition, and goes well beyond defendant rights to provide an overview of the entire Islamic set of principles. The chapter ends with a brief review of the commonalities and differences among the four legal traditions.

Chapter Five is an amalgam of key people, cases and terms arranged alphabetically. This seems, at best, to be an uneven collection. For example, MIRANDA v. ARIZONA (1966) gets four lines of explanation, while NIX v. WILLIAMS (1984) merits two pages. Most scholars would consider MIRANDA to be a far more important case. Chapters Six through Eight provide some short documents but are mostly valuable for their discussion of various administrative offices that deal with aspects of defendant rights, as well as providing some data and information on where to find more extensive data. Chapter Nine will be valuable for high school and college teachers looking for teaching resources. [*226]

This book does what it was designed to do: provide a non-technical overview of the topic of defendant rights. It will not be of much use to scholars in this field, but it will be a valuable resource for students doing research and looking for a quick overview of the subject. The section on Islamic law does provide one of the best popular summaries I have seen on that topic.

CASE REFERENCES:

MIRANDA v. ARIZONA, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).

NIX v. WILLIAMS (1984).

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© Copyright 2005 by the author, Paul J. Weber.