Let's Get Free - by Paul Butler (Paperback)

About the Book

Paul Butler was an ambitious federal prosecutor, a Harvard Law grad who gave up his corporate law salary to fight the good fight--until one day he was arrested on the street and charged with a crime he didn't commit. "The Volokh Conspiracy" calls Butler's account of his trial "the most riveting first chapter I have ever read."
In a book Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree calls "a must read," Butler looks at places where ordinary citizens meet the justice system--as jurors, witnesses, and in encounters with the police--and explores what "doing the right thing" means in a corrupt system.
Since "Let's Get Free"'s publication in spring 2009, Butler has become the go-to person for commentary on criminal justice and race relations: he appeared on ABC News, "Good Morning America," and Fox News, published op-eds in the "New York Times" and other national papers, and is in demand to speak across the country. The paperback edition brings Butler's groundbreaking and highly controversial arguments--jury nullification (voting "not guilty" in drug cases as a form of protest), just saying "no" when the police request your permission to search, and refusing to work inside the system as a snitch or a prosecutor--to a whole new audience.

Book Synopsis

Radical ideas for changing the justice system, rooted in the real-life experiences of those in overpoliced communities, from the acclaimed former federal prosecutor and author of Chokehold

Paul Butler was an ambitious federal prosecutor, a Harvard Law grad who gave up his corporate law salary to fight the good fight--until one day he was arrested on the street and charged with a crime he didn't commit.

In a book Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree calls "a must-read," Butler looks at places where ordinary citizens meet the justice system--as jurors, witnesses, and in encounters with the police--and explores what "doing the right thing" means in a corrupt system. No matter how powerless those caught up in the web of the law may feel, there is a chance to regain agency, argues Butler. Through groundbreaking and sometimes controversial methods--jury nullification (voting "not guilty" in drug cases as a form of protest), just saying "no" when the police request your permission to search, and refusing to work inside the system as a snitch or a prosecutor--ordinary people can tip the system towards actual justice. Let's Get Free is an evocative, compelling look at the steps we can collectively take to reform our broken system.

Review Quotes

"Useful analyses and original suggestions regarding the debate about how best to incarcerate fewer people . . . a debate that should have begun years ago." -California Lawyer

"[A] masterpiece in the literature of American criminal justice." -Bookforum

"An intriguing volume . . . the building block for future scholarship and conversations about racial issues affecting real people." -LA Daily Journal

"Provides a framework of solutions to a stressed and broken justice system that is in need of reform." -purepolitics.com

"A can't-put-it-down call to action from a progressive former prosecutor. Butler's take on controversial topics like snitching and drug legalization is provocative . . . smart and very entertaining." -Danny Glover

"A fresh and thought-provoking perspective on the war on drugs, snitches, and whether locking so many people up really makes Americans safer." -Anthony Romero, executive director, American Civil Liberties Union

About the Author

A former federal prosecutor, Paul Butler is the country's leading expert on jury nullification. He provides legal commentary for CNN, NPR, and the Fox News Network, and has been featured on 60 Minutes and profiled in the Washington Post. He has written for the Post, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times, and is a law professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.