No Heroes No Villains Summary

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No Heroes, No Villains: The Story of a Murder Trial by Steven Phillips takes the reader behind the scenes of a particular case. This is the story of James Richardson, a black man who was accused of murdering police officer, John Skagen. John Skagen, a white off duty officer, was headed home in the subway system in South Bronx, New York. For reasoning still questionable, he ordered Richardson to get up against the wall with his hands up. While being frisked, Richardson pulled a gun on Skagen and the two exchanged shots. Richardson then escaped the custody of Skagen and headed up the subways stairs firing four shots, two of which hit Skagen in the shoulders. Richardson shouted as he reached the top of the stairs “He’s shooting, a crazy man …show more content…

Steven Phillips goes into detail about the case and keeps his chapters short making it an easy read. Personally, I believe that Steven Phillips wrote this book not only to shed some light on the Richardson case but to also to show the difficulty of the prosecutor and the defense attorney’s job. Phillips talks about his overloading cases and how sometimes there is little time to prepare which means sometimes justice does not always happen. “The Bronx Criminal Court was a crucible which melted down and transformed my sensibilities. There was no time to even attempt to do justice to the cases that came before me. There was no real information available upon which to make intelligent, let alone fair, decisions. There was nothing except a vast caseload, and a never-ended pressure to dispose of it rapidly.” (Phillips 1977 p.65) I also believe Phillips gives the reader an in depth look and the necessities for building a case and how it relates to nothing like we watch on television which can be categorized as courtroom drama. He specially mentions about how the moral component of cases are somewhat no existent, which applies to many prosecutors and defense attorneys. He sees the Richardson case as a challenge but recognized it is a tragedy. It really shows how prosecutors and defense attorneys have an important job to do which is to defend their client at all

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