Publication Date: March 17, 2026
Ever wonder what it’s really like to be a criminal prosecutor in a city like Chicago? Felony Review is a vivid, behind—the—scenes account of the years Randy Barnett spent as a young prosecutor in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office during the late 1970s and early 1980s—an era of violent crime and widespread corruption in the criminal courts of Chicago.
With firsthand immediacy and sharp insight, Barnett recounts the murder investigations, grisly police station confessions, courtroom tactics, and moral dilemmas he faced while rising through the ranks from chaotic misdemeanor courts, to the city’s pioneering Felony Review Unit, to the felony trial courts. Along the way, he reflects on why criminals confess to the police; how to maintain your integrity while working within a corrupt system; and why the exclusionary rule, which bars illegally obtained evidence from being used in court, was a good thing but should be replaced.
A bracing true—crime narrative told by a prosecutor who went on to become one of the country’s leading legal thinkers, Felony Review brings to life the gritty realities of big—city justice—and shows why being a real prosecutor is better than TV. It is a book for lovers of true crime stories, for lawyers, and for anyone who aspires to be a courtroom lawyer.
Who would ever have imagined that Chicago would spawn so many examples of true crime and corruption?
Author Randy E. Barnett gathers insight on how our criminal justice system really works in Felony Review.
The key to the plot is understanding that Cook County used a specialized unit of prosecutors stationed at police headquarters throughout the city. Their role was to comb through the evidence (aka Felony Review). Only with the approval of an assistant state’s attorney could the police file felony charges.
The author shares stories compiled through his rise from felony arraignments to misdemeanor branch courts to misdemeanor jury courts to auto theft review to Felony Review, and then to felony trial courts. Those stories offer plenty of fodder for discussion.
Complete with images, the stories range from personal memories, such as Barnett’s pants ripping during a search for a weapon, to a gruesome tale involving a naked dead body and some hogs.
The stories are well arranged and offer quick micro-bursts of information before moving to the next topic.
Felony Review provides real examples of true crime and corruption among those expected to protect and serve the citizens.
Randy Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at the Georgetown University Law Center where he directs the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. After graduating from Northwestern University and Harvard Law School, he tried many felony cases as a prosecutor in the Cook County States’ Attorney’s Office in Chicago. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Constitutional Studies and the Bradley Prize, Professor Barnett has been a visiting professor at Penn, Northwestern and Harvard Law School. His publications includes thirteen books and countless scholarly articles, book reviews, and op—eds. In 2004, he argued the medical marijuana case of Gonzalez v. Raich before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2012, he represented the National Federation of Independent Business in its constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act in NFIB v. Sebelius. He’s appeared in numerous documentaries and portrayed a prosecutor in the 2010 science—fiction feature film, InAlienable.
