New Book by UNC Law Professor Carissa Byrne Hessick

Professor Carissa Byrne Hessick has released her latest book: Punishment Without Trial!

Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining is a Bad Deal explores plea bargaining and how it has undermined the justice system and the right to a trial. In this book, Professor Hessick demonstrates how plea bargaining has done away with preconceived notions of what justice should be and should look like, and then provides potential reforms for the current system.

As the Anne Shea Ransdell and William Garland “Buck” Ransdell, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law and the director of the Prosecutors and Politics Project, Professor Hessick has written numerous law review articles, essays, and opinion pieces on plea bargaining and the powers and selection of prosecutors in addition to many other topics. She has been published in the California Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, and the L.A. Times among others. Professor Hessick provides her expertise on plea bargaining and criminal law in news articles, commentaries, and legal podcasts, including for Slate, the Atlantic, and the Denver Post.

To find out more about her latest work, Punishment Without Trial, please watch the book trailer video.  

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