Case of a Lifetime

“A captivating, emotionally intense investigation of the complicated relationship between truth and the justice system.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A recent study estimates that thousands of innocent people are wrongfully imprisoned each year in the United States. Some are exonerated through DNA evidence, but many more languish in prison because their convictions were based on faulty eyewitness accounts and no DNA is available.

In Case of a Lifetime, prominent criminal lawyer and law professor Abbe Smith weaves together real life cases to show what it is like to champion the rights of the accused. Smith describes the moral and ethical dilemmas of representing the guilty and the weighty burden of fighting for the innocent, including the victorious story of how she helped free a woman wrongly imprisoned for nearly three decades.

“This is an extraordinary, profoundly moving book. . . . I know of no other book that says as much about a defense lawyer's motivations, self-doubt, frustrations. I finished it with tears in my eyes.” —Pulitzer Prize–winning author Anthony Lewis

“Intelligent, subtle, and honest. I couldn't put the book down. . . . It is a testament to what can happen when one person reaches out to another in need.” —Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking