Law Audiobooks | Non-Fiction

Bringing Ben Home: A Murder, a Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice

How states are making their legal systems more equitable, seen through the story of a Black man falsely imprisoned for thirty years for murder. In 1989, Ben Spencer, a twenty-two-year-old Black man from Dallas, was convicted of murdering white businessman Jeffrey Young-a crime he didn't commit. From the day of his arrest, Spencer insisted that it was "an awful mistake." The Texas legal system didn't see it that way. It allowed shoddy police work, paid witnesses, and prosecutorial misconduct to convict Spencer of murder, and it ignored later efforts to correct this error. The state's bureaucratic intransigence caused Spencer to spend more than half his life in prison. Eventually independent investigators, new witness testimony, the foreman of the jury that convicted him, and a new Dallas DA convinced a Texas judge that Spencer had nothing to do with the killing, and in 2022 he was released from prison. As Spencer's fight to clear himself demonstrates, our legal systems are broken: expedience is more important than the truth. That is starting to change as states across the country implement new efforts to reduce wrongful convictions, and one of the states leading the way is Texas. Award-winning journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty has spent years digging into this issue, and she has immersed herself in Spencer's case. She has combed police files and court records, interviewed dozens of witnesses, and had extensive conversations with Spencer, and in Bringing Ben Home she threads together two narratives: how an innocent Black man got caught up in and couldn't escape a legal system that refused to admit its mistakes; and what Texas and other states are doing to address wrongful convictions to make the legal process more equitable for everyone. By turns fascinating and enraging, personal and provocative, Bringing Ben Home is the powerful story of one innocent man who refused to admit that he was guilty of murder, and how his plight became part of a paradigm shift in how the legal system thinks about innocence as it institutes new methods to overturn wrongful convictions to better protect people like Ben Spencer.

Barbara Bradley Hagerty (Author), Barbara Bradley Hagerty, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Rough Justice: The Sunday Times bestselling Old Bailey judge interrogates whether our criminal court

Brought to you by Penguin. What is justice? Do our legal courts dispense it? Has our judicial process improved, for the victims, the accused and for society? What more must be done to ensure genuine justice is carried out in future? Following on the heels of her bestseller Unlawful Killings, Old Bailey judge Wendy Joseph KC places her readers at the heart of the courtroom drama, and asks questions of the institutions tasked to deliver what is right and fair. With a text that is vivid, fast-paced and utterly absorbing, with all the hallmarks of a twisty thriller, she keep readers on tenterhooks as they await the verdicts of some of the most shocking and harrowing cases this murder trial judge has presided over. But, as she contrasts modern courtroom tales with eerily similar cases and miscarriages of justice from many years ago, could the most chilling story of all be that the lessons of the past have yet to be learned? Unpicking the fatal foibles of our legal system, in Rough Justice Joseph asks British courts to face up to their failings, as she makes her own compelling case for change. .......................................................................................................... Praise for Unlawful Killings 'Wendy Joseph's gripping account of the law at work reads like a cliffhanger.' Sunday Times 'A gripping insight ... beautifully crafted ... grim tales lifted by humour and honesty.' The Times 'Absolutely superb. 5 stars' PHILIPPA PERRY, author of THE BOOK YOU WISH YOUR PARENTS HAD READ ©2024 Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Wendy Joseph (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sister in Law: Fighting for Justice in a System Designed by Men

Brought to you by Penguin. Only 30 years ago, rape within marriage was not a crime, Judges saw rape victims as complicit for wearing short skirts; teenage runaways were groomed, pimped and then arrested as ‘common prostitutes’, and harassment, stalking, forced marriage and honour-based violence were not defined or recognised as separate offences in law. Since then there have been important legislative reforms but the law is only as good as those who enforce it. Telling the stories of a series of ground-breaking cases, Harriet Wistrich illustrates how far misogyny is baked into our justice system. Among the women she has represented are Emma Humphreys and Sally Challen, both of whose murder convictions were overturned in watershed moments, the victims of serial rapist, taxi-driver John Worboys, and the wives and girlfriends of undercover police who were fraudulently deceived into long-term relationships and illegally spied upon. Her work has involved direct challenges to government departments and cabinet ministers, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the immigration service, and the Parole Board. It provides critical insight into the many ways issues relating to violence against women intersect with racism, state violence and lack of accountability. And it shows how bringing a feminist lens to legal issues has led to creative solutions and inspiring partnerships. This important work demands tenacity, compassion and collaboration, but Wistrich shows that it is imperative that we demand better justice and that it is possible to bring about important change. ©2024 Harriet Wistrich (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Harriet Wistrich (Author), Catherine Bailey, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Court v. the Voters: The Troubling Story of How the Supreme Court Has Undermined Voting Rights

An urgent and gripping look at the erosion of voting rights and its implications for democracy, told through the stories of 9 Supreme Court decisions-and the next looming case In The Court v. The Voters, law professor Joshua Douglas takes us behind the scenes of significant cases in voting rights-some surprising and unknown, some familiar-to investigate the historic crossroads that have irrevocably changed our elections and the nation. In crisp and accessible prose, Douglas tells the story of each case, sheds light on the intractable election problems we face as a result, and highlights the unique role the highest court has played in producing a broken electoral system. Douglas charts infamous cases like: - Bush v. Gore, which opened the door to many election law claims - Citizens United, which contributed to skewed representation-but perhaps not in the way you might think - Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted the vital protections of the Voting Rights Act - Crawford v. Marion County Elections Board, which allowed states to enforce voter ID laws and make it harder for people to vote The Court v. The Voters powerfully reminds us of the tangible, real-world effects from the Court's voting rights decisions. While we can-and should-lament the democracy that might have been, Douglas argues that we can-and should-double down in our efforts to protect the right to vote.

Joshua A. Douglas (Author), Chris Baetens, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Fair Shake: Women and the Fight to Build a Just Economy

A stirring, comprehensive look at the state of women in the workforce—why women's progress has stalled, how our economy fosters unproductive competition, and how we can fix the system that holds women back. In the #MeToo era, when gender equality is at the forefront of the conversation, women are still falling behind in the workplace faster than ever before; this was true before COVID, and even more true after. Fair Shake explains that the system that governs our economy—a winner-takes-all economy—is the cause. The WTA economy self-selects for aggressive, cutthroat business tactics, which creates a feedback loop that sidelines women. The book explores what legal scholars determine the "triple bind" including: -If women don't compete on the same terms as men, they lose. -If women do compete on the same terms as men, they lose. -When women see that they can't win on the same terms as men, they take themselves out of the game (if they haven't been pushed out already). Fair Shake offers a timely, practical view of women in the workforce today—what holds them back and what stops them from entering at all. Using legal cases throughout, Naomi Cahn offers rich, detailed storytelling to demonstrate how our laws fail to protect women. This book is the much-needed wake-up call to make the lasting changes required for gender equality in the workplace.

June Carbone, Nancy Levit, Naomi Cahn (Author), Janina Edwards, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Freedom to Discriminate: How Realtors Conspired to Segregate Housing and Divide America

A landmark history told with narrative skill, Freedom to Discriminate uncovers realtors' definitive role in segregating America and shaping modern conservative thought. His book traces the increasingly aggressive ways realtors justified their practices, how they successfully weaponized the word 'freedom' for their cause, and how conservative politicians have drawn directly from realtors' rhetoric for the past several decades. Much of this story takes place in California, and Slater demonstrates why one of the very first all-white neighborhoods was in Berkeley, and why the state was the perfect place for Ronald Reagan's political ascension. The hinge point in history is Proposition 14, a largely forgotten but monumentally important 1964 ballot initiative. Created and promoted by California realtors, the proposition sought to uphold housing discrimination permanently in the state's constitution, and a vast majority of Californians voted for it. This vote had explosive consequences-ones that still inform our deepest political divisions today-and a true reckoning with the history of American racism requires a closer look at the events leading up to it. Freedom to Discriminate shatters preconceptions about American segregation, and it connects many seemingly disparate aspects of the nation's history in a novel and galvanizing way.

Gene Slater (Author), Keith Sellon-Wright (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Lasting Harm

The explosive, behind-the-scenes account of the criminal trial of the century. 'I understand – and sympathise with – the feeling you might have that you already know the Jeffrey Epstein story. But I am not here to tell you a story about Jeffrey Epstein, or even Ghislaine Maxwell. I am here to tell you the stories of ten women, many of whom have never spoken at length before, about the real impact of sexual trauma on their lives.' In November 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of five counts of sex-trafficking of minors, and now faces 55 years in prison for the role she played in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of four girls. The trial was meticulously covered by journalist and legal reporter Lucia Osborne-Crowley, one of only four reporters allowed into the courtroom every day. The Lasting Harm is her account of that trial, a gripping true crime drama and a blistering critique of a criminal justice system ill-equipped to deliver justice for abuse survivors, no matter the outcome. Centring the stories of four women and their testimonies, and supplemented by extra material to which Osborne-Crowley has exclusive access, The Lasting Harm brings this incendiary trial to life, questions our age-old appetite for crime and punishment and offers a new blueprint for meaningful reparative justice.

Lucia Osborne-Crowley (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect

Are you discouraged by our divided, angry culture, where even listening to a different perspective sometimes feels impossible? If so, you're not alone, and it doesn't have to be this way. Learning to Disagree reveals the surprising path to learning how to disagree in ways that build new bridges with our neighbors, coworkers, and loved ones--and help us find better ways to live joyfully in a complex society. In a tense cultural climate, is it possible to disagree productively and respectfully without compromising our convictions? Spanning a range of challenging issues--including critical race theory, sexual assault, campus protests, and clashes over religious freedom--highly regarded thought leader and law professor John Inazu helps us engage honestly and empathetically with people whose viewpoints we find strange, wrong, or even dangerous. As a constitutional scholar, legal expert, and former litigator, John has spent his career learning how to disagree well with other people. In Learning to Disagree, John shares memorable stories and draws on the practices that legal training imparts--seeing the complexity in every issue and inhabiting the mindset of an opposing point of view--to help us handle daily encounters and lifelong relationships with those who see life very differently than we do. This groundbreaking, poignant, and highly practical book equips us to: - Understand what holds us back from healthy disagreement - Learn specific, start-today strategies for dialoguing clearly and authentically - Move from stuck, broken disagreements to mature, healthy disagreements - Cultivate empathy as a core skill for our personal lives and our whole society If you are feeling exhausted from the tattered state of dialogue in your social media feed, around the country, and in daily conversations, you're not alone. Discover a more connected life while still maintaining the strength of your convictions through this unique, often-humorous, thought-provoking, and ultimately life-changing exploration of the best way to disagree.

John Inazu (Author), John Inazu, Sarah Zimmerman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Blue-Coated Terror: Jim Crow New Orleans and the Roots of Modern Police Brutality

A searing chronicle of how racist violence became an ingrained facet of policing in the United States Contrary to competing popular beliefs, police violence against African Americans has neither remained unchanged since the era of slavery nor is it a recent phenomenon disconnected from the past. In Bluecoated Terror, Jeffrey S. Adler draws on rich archival accounts to show how racialized police brutality is part of a larger system of state oppression with roots in the early twentieth-century South, particularly New Orleans. Wide racial differentials in the use of lethal force and beatings during arrest and interrogation emerged in the 1930s and 1940s. Adler explains how race control and crime control blended and blurred during this era, when police officers and criminal justice officials began to justify systemic violence against Black people as a crucial—and legal—tool for maintaining law and order. Bluecoated Terrorexplores both the rise of these trends and their chilling persistence, providing critical context for recent horrific police abuses as the ghost of Jim Crow continues to haunt the nation. “Jeffrey S. Adler’s analysis of New Orleans applies to the entire country and provides key insights as to how we arrived at our present crisis.”—Ibram X. Kendi, author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Jeffrey S. Adler (Author), Arnell Powell (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Incarcerations

The world’s largest democracy is facing the greatest challenge since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. The Incarcerations pulls back the curtain on Indian democracy to tell the remarkable and chilling story of the Bhima Koregaon case, in which 16 human rights defenders (the BK-16) – professors, lawyers, journalists, poets – have been imprisoned, without credible evidence and without trial, as Maoist terrorists. Alpa Shah unravels how these alleged terrorists were charged with inciting violence at a year’s day commemoration in 2018, accused of waging a war against the Indian state, and plotting to kill the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Expertly leading us through the case, Shah exposes some of the world’s most shocking revelations of cyber warfare research, which show not only hacking of emails and mobile phones of the BK-16, but also implantation of the electronic evidence that was used to incarcerate them. Through the life histories of the BK-16, Shah dives deep into the issues they fought for and tells the story of India’s three main minorities – Adivasi, Dalits and Muslims – and what the search for democracy entails for them. Essential and urgent, The Incarcerations reveals how this case is a bellwether for the collapse of democracy in India, as for the first time in the nation’s history there is a multi-pronged, coordinated attack on key defenders of various pillars of democracy. In so doing, Shah shows that democracy today must be not only about protecting freedom of expression and democratic institutions, but also about supporting and safeguarding the social movements that question our global inequalities.

Alpa Shah (Author), Tania Rodrigues (Narrator)

Audiobook

Hype Machine: How Greed, Fraud and Free Money Crashed Crypto

On 2 November 2023, in one of the largest fraud trials in history, Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of stealing billions of dollars from the customers of his crypto-exchange, FTX. How did this 31-year-old Californian in flip-flops, board shorts and a T-shirt manage to become one of the most famous CEOs in the world? How did greed, fear and free money inflate the crypto bubble until it finally popped with devastating consequences for millions of people who lost money in the crash? Who were the enablers, investors and innovators who transformed the original promise of crypto into a digital Wild West? Hype Machine is the definitive story of the boom and bust of crypto, written by award-winning Financial Times journalist Joshua Oliver. Expansive, nuanced and eminently entertaining, it demystifies the crypto circus by following the journeys of its most influential participants and the trajectory of SBF, its enigmatic ringmaster. Oliver, who reported on the crypto crash with extensive access to SBF himself, introduces listeners to the people and ideas that shaped crypto's wild rise and fall, including Arthur Hayes, Changpeng Zhao and the coterie of acolytes who surrounded FTX. Through exclusive interviews, compelling research and with ringside seats at the trial of the decade, he paints a vivid, detailed and tragi-comic picture of this defining financial moment of our times.

Joshua Oliver (Author), Joshua Oliver, Sebastian Brown, Unknown (Narrator)

Audiobook

In Harm’s Way: The memoir of a child protection lawyer from the most secretive court in England and

When the system fails the parents, how can it protect the children? Welcome to the secretive world of the Family Court. What's it like to act for a father who has recently overcome his drug problem but risks losing his beloved son to foster care?’? Or to represent a young mother whose abusive childhood has left her depressed and struggling to cope, to the point where the local authority is seeking to persuade the Family Court to place her small children for adoption? In this hard-hitting account of her work representing parents in care proceedings in the Family Court, child protection lawyer Teresa Thornhill conveys the dilemmas inherent in the job and shows how our under-resourced system of child protection – in both its social work and legal aspects – often fails to provide support that could enable the most vulnerable parents to continue to care for their children.

Teresa Thornhill (Author), Emma Spurgin Hussey (Narrator)

Audiobook

Law Audiobooks in Non-Fiction