Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice

Paul Butler

Nov 2020 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Leon Nixon

About this audiobook

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 audio 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.

About the author

A former federal prosecutor, Paul Butler is the country's leading expert on jury nullification. A law professor at Georgetown University, he is the author of Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, winner of the Harry Chapin Media Award, and Chokehold: Policing Black Men. He lives in Washington, DC.

Leon Nixon is a professional actor, playwright, and filmmaker. A Los Angeles native, he has performed in short films, web series, and on stage in dramatic and comedic roles.