This is a book about the law’s failure as a system of empirical inquiry.  While the US Supreme Court repeatedly says that the aim of a trial is to find out the truth about a crime, there is abundant evidence that many of the rules of evidence and legal procedure are not truth-conducive.  Quite the contrary; many are truth-thwarting.  Relevant evidence of defendant’s guilt is often excluded; reasonable inferences from the available evidence are likewise often excluded. When a defendant elects not to testify, jurors are told to draw no inculpatory inferences from...