Criminal Justice, Literary

In the Tribune today, Julia Keller has a fine essay on literary treatments of justice and the wrongly accused, focusing primarily on Julian Barnes' recent Arthur & George but also deftly integrating such diverse authors as Harper Lee, Tolstoy, and Scott Turow.

Are we infuriated by the specter of wrongful conviction because we fear it could happen to us? Are we secretly apprehensive that, like the innocent man championed by Jimmy Stewart's character in "Call Northside 777," we might be railroaded someday? I don't think so.

I think, rather, that it's part of an innate desire for justice virtually encoded in human DNA.

As I delved into the article, I dreaded what I assumed would be an inevitable citation of the Eggers-edited and -blessed Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated. I was pleasantly surprised to see my fears prove to be unfounded.

(Trib site requires registration...if not already registered, use "blurb@sofort-mail.de" to log on, with "noblurb" as the password. Thanks to bugmenot.com, as always.)