The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly

The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly #2022Reads #JanuaryReads ?(when read: January 13, 2022, posted at @sully.reads on Instagram)

The first book I read this year. I recently sought out numerous Michael Connelly books ever since I read the Brass Verdict and The Fifth Witness. I specifically love Connelly’s Lincoln Lawyer series.

In a criminal case, the prosecution bears the burden of proving that the defendant is guilty beyond reasonable doubt. Here, the Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey Haller, after pulling off another successful stunt in court, is pulled over by police, who surprisingly found a body of a client in the trunk of his Lincoln. Haller is charged with murder. We all know he's been framed. Now, with the help of his team, he has to prove his innocence. As he succinctly put,

"Innocence is not a legal term. No one is ever found innocent in a court of law. No one is ever exonerated by the verdict of a jury. The justice system can only deliver a verdict of guilty or not guilty. Nothing else, nothing more."

"The law of innocence is unwritten. It will not be found in a leather-bound codebook. It will never be argued in a courtroom. It cannot be written into law by the elected. It is an abstract idea and yet it closely aligns with the hard laws of nature and science. In the law of physics, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the law of innocence, for every man not guilty of a crime, there is a man out there who is. And to prove true innocence, the guilty man must be found and exposed to the world.”

Aside from the prosecution’s imminent failure to prove their case or Haller’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt, Haller knows that the only way to prove he didn't do it is to prove who did. And that for him is, “the law of innocence."

I really loved how Connelly inserts case law doctrines and other first year legal theories (since Haller’s daughter is a first-year law student at USC). I felt like I was reviewing criminal procedures and criminal law principles while reading this. Also, don’t get me started on how some courts (no matter where it is located), suffer from lack of parking spaces.

Interestingly, this is the first fiction I’ve read that incorporates COVID-19, albeit faintly. It makes me wonder how many more will as time goes on.

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