"Part detective story, part social commentary, part intellectual autobiography, part philosophical analysis, this is a jury book unlike any other."—Anthony Kronman, Sterling Professor of Law and former Dean, Yale Law School "[Norma Thompson] teaches us, brilliantly and painlessly, why judging, as opposed to simply knowing, is an essential part of a responsible human existence, recounting the trials and crimes and moral dilemmas of antiquity and classical tradition in a stunningly original reading."—Abraham D. Sofaer, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, and former United States District Judge In 2001, Norma Thompson served on the jury in a murder trial in New Haven, Connecticut. In Unreasonable Doubt, Thompson dramatically depicts the jury's deliberations, which ended in a deadlock. As foreperson, she pondered the behavior of some of her fellow jurors that led to the trial's termination in a hung jury. Blending personal memoir, social analysis, and literary criticism, she addresses the evasion of judgment she witnessed during deliberations and relates that evasion to contemporary political, social, and legal affairs. She then assembles an imaginary jury of Tocqueville, Plato, and Jane Austen, among others, to show how the writings of these authors can help model responsible habits of deliberation.

What urged me to jot down what I had written in this little novel are the lessons that I have learned from the grand Lifes University. I had benefited from the experiences that I learned. Some specific points are clearly pointed and i am sure you would be able to grasp what is between the lines! Yes. I had learned, felt, seen and believed that the person who is conscious of Allah, the Almighty, He would make him a way out and provide him with means from sources he would think the least he would be able to get from. Allah, the Almighty granted me strength after weakness. He granted me security after being frightened. He granted me provisions after being poor. Allah, the Almighty employed for me those who knew me and those who dont know me!. I kept on calling and invoking upon the King of all kings; Lord. I raised my hand up to Him. He didnt return them empty out of His generosity and kindness . Some of the most beautiful moments are those which man spends with his own thoughts and memories that he lives second by second as he feels their sweetness, bitterness, hopes, pains, pleasures and sorrows, and all their details. As I jot down what I could of such moments and capture them [by words and phrases], I beg your pardon and ask your forgiveness. I don't mean to excite you and stir your emotions through a novelist writing, but rather, I would like to give an [honest] account of my own story that carries my own emotions and feelings. I seek your permission to sail with me in order to narrate to you, and in order to see with your own eyes the events of two months of suffering and pains that I spent in the USA, in the state of Massachusetts, in the city of Boston.

The nightmare started, when Hollywood’s leading man R.B. “Arbee” Washington is accused of murdering his publicist and her lover. Although he was found ‘not guilty’ in the initial criminal trial, he lost the subsequent civil case. Rather than accepting the court-imposed penalties, he skipped bail and fled to the Bahamas to visit his hidden money in off-shore banks. Retired Los Angeles police detective Larry Porter picked up the fugitive’s scent after his former partner, still on active duty with the LAPD, provided him with confidential details of the police and INTERPOL investigation. A riveting cat-and-mouse-game leads the two adversaries from the underground world of Soho to their Mafia connections in the Turks and Caicos Islands, and to a mysterious monastery on a mountain-top in the Caribbean. When one of the off-shore bankers robbed and nearly killed Arbee’s partner-incrime and lover Joe-Joe, the actor decides it was time to go on the offensive. After a killing-spree that eliminated most of the people who knew his identity, Arbee decides to remain in the islands and start a new life under an assumed name. But he did not count on Detective Parker’s tenacity ...

Jaded New York City Public Defender Liana Cohen would give anything to have one client in whom she can believe. Dozens of hardened criminals and repeat offenders have chipped away at her faith in both herself and the system. Her boyfriend Jakob’s high-powered law firm colleagues see her do-gooder job as a joke, which only adds to the increasing strain in their relationship. Enter imprisoned felon Danny Shea, whose unforgivable crime would raise a moral conflict in an attorney at the height of her idealism—and that hasn't been Liana in quite a while. But Danny's astonishing blend of good looks, intelligence, and vulnerability intrigues Liana. Could he be the client she’s been longing for—the wrongly accused in need of a second chance? Is he innocent? As their attorney-client relationship transforms into something less than arm’s length, Liana is forced to confront fundamental questions of truth, faith, and love—and to decide who she wants to be.