"""Extreme Cruelty should be required reading for everyone working in the courts and anyone interested in a meaningful dialogue about criminal justice reform. I could not put this book down."" -Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize Winner for DEVIL IN THE GROVE: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America ""It will behoove readers who care about justice to follow the guidance of Judge Steve Dankof as he sweeps back and forth across history to make the administration of our laws-in all their Byzantine complexities-understandable. This is a gifted chronicler who cares about the times in which we must endure."" -Wil Haygood, author of SHOWDOWN: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America ""The great Frederick Douglass said, in another trying time for our democracy and the rule of law: 'It is not light that is needed, but the fire; not the gentle shower, but the thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake-the conscience of the nation must be roused.' Judge Steve Dankof, in this terrific little book, is the thunder, not the gentle shower."" -Gene Nichol, Tinsley Distinguished Professor of Law, University of North Carolina, author of THE FACES OF POVERTY IN NORTH CAROLINA and INDECENT ASSEMBLY"