I followed the Brad Cooper trial back in April 2011 when it was being televised on a local news website in Raleigh, NC. Over time I found the lack of credible evidence disturbing at best, and I was having a hard time trying to reconcile why Brad was being charged in the first place. Nothing seemed to tie him to the crime, crime scene, and none of the “evidence” seemed at all conclusive in any way to me. Then the video stream was blocked out due for “national security” reasons. It was during this time that the prosecution’s “smoking gun” evidence was presented… the 42 second Google Map search. But more about that in a minute.
The author goes through in meticulous detail the entire history of identification of suspects, collection of “evidence”, and the presentation of “evidence” that resulted in the conviction of Brad Cooper by a jury of 12 of his peers. After a while the errors and manipulations of this process become readily apparent as Lynne shows how the stories mutate over time into a collection of complete fabricated evidence that bears little resemblance to the original statements gathered. In essence the reader is left with the conclusion that there is NO evidence at all; that the police and prosecution have built this case on nothing substantial, not even circumstantial, but complete fabrications, speculations, and inferences from the information gathered during the investigation. She does an effective job to show that the police never considered any alternate theories during the investigation, and essentially built a case around what they decided from the beginning: that Brad was guilty.
In addition to eviscerating the evidence completely, Lynne goes on to documented the evidence that was not allowed to be presented at trial, and in my opinion even proves that the only evidence that could point to Brad’s guilt, the “smoking gun” I referenced previously, must have be physically planted on the computer. In fact chapter 19 of the book goes into this with excruciating detail. By the conclusion of this chapter I was convinced without a doubt that Brad’s computer was compromised and that the smoking gun evidence presented by the prosecution was completely planted by someone.
This book also points out the many ways that basic protocols for evidence handling during the investigative phase was incompetently executed by the police department and how the Judge ruled against the defense so much so during the trial that the defense was basically crippled. Luckily the appeals court wasn’t as biased as the trial judge that a new trial was ordered, but as the reader you can’t help feeling that Brad was left with no position but to accept a plea agreement in order to avoid being retried represented by a less-than-optimal court-appointed attorney.
In essence, if this book is a true representation of the investigative, prosecutorial and judicial aspects of the justice process in this country then it leaves me as the reader having a complete lack of confidence in the justice process… where a person can convicted with no direct evidence to the crime or even simply prevented from disputing the planted “evidence” at trial due to an arguably biased judge who ruled against the defense at every turn.
If this book had existed prior to the appeal case being heard, perhaps the decision to accept the plea would have been reconsidered by Brad as I believe it is detailed enough that the contents of this book could have been used by a competent attorney to mount an effective defense with preferable an unbiased judge presiding.
On its own, this book should be considered a warning of how the justice process can be manipulated and construed in the favor of any side that has sufficient resources to accomplish this. For those who decided prematurely that Brad Cooper perpetrated this crime I challenge them to go through this book detail by detail and be able to say at the end they are still convinced the evidence points to his guilt, because for me, it doesn’t.
If this is supposed to be a country where a defendent is "innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" then this book demonstrates how the entire system can be corrupted against the defendent and a conviction can be obtained through merely a manipulation of witness statements and speculative evidence. This book should be required reading for anyone considering a career in criminal justice fields.
