Expert Witness: The Weight of Our Testimony When Justice Hangs in the Balance

Difficult subject matter balanced with an empathetic open mind.

Expert Witness pulls back the curtain on some of the biggest cases that Ann Burgess participated in to reveal the truth behind the trials and the methods used as an expert witness. These were high profile cases that were heavily covered by the media, like the Menendez Brothers, the Duke University Lacrosse team, and Bill Cosby. After reading Burgess’ previous book, A Killer by Design, I was eager to jump into this one and learn more about expert witnesses and her work. This was an interesting look at what an expert witness who profiles criminals does for a trial and how they handle various types of cases. While this is informative, there are sections that felt like it was more of an overview of the process, which is fine, but I personally was looking for a little more detail on how certain things were handled. While I did enjoy this, it also felt like it was a bit repetitive from AKBD because some of the cases were the same, like the Menendez brothers and the Co-Ed Killer (Edmund Kemper). While in this one she went into a little more detail about being an expert witness and trial side of these cases, it still was a lot of repeat information, which isn’t a bad thing for those who haven’t read the previous book, but for me, it was. But also, I know these were huge cases for her so it kind of makes sense to reuse them, I just was expecting different cases, and maybe not so high profile ones. One aspect of this that did turn me off a bit, was her belief that the use of AI in trials is a positive thing. AI has been proven to be biased and racist, and is actively harming people's chance at a fair trial right now, especially since there are no current regulations about its use in trials. This is something that she doesn’t discuss either, which is a huge disappointment for a woman whose whole argument was to uncover the truth and bring a fair trial to both parties. She does say she can see the importance of it when it comes to analyzing the patterns in large data sets, which is honesty one positive way to use AI and is how a lot of researchers use it, but because she doesn’t address any of the ethical or environmental issues with AI, her argument just ended up disappointing. Overall, this book was a bit of a hit and miss for me. I enjoyed learning about how an expert witness works and how she helps with cases as an expert witness. But I didn’t really enjoy the repetitiveness of cases and her push to use AI in trials. TW: sexual assault and rape; drugging; kidnapping; violence; murder; mental illness;

When I read a 250 page non-fiction book, I expect to learn something. This book was dull, boring, and at times, pretentious. I assume the person who wrote the book is Steven Matthew Constantine, who likely functioned as a ghost rider, but that Anne Wolbert Burgess’s name is on it because it’s her memoir. The only reason I finished reading this book was because I read it for the Morbidly Curious Book Club. If not for that, I would’ve DNF’ed it about 50 pages in.

I went expecting to learn more about the history of expert witnesses. This was more a memoir. The author spent most of the book patting herself on the back and criticizing everyone else. The epilogue finished me with this author. Her belief that AI will be impartial is laughable. AI will carry the bias of those that train it. By far the worst book I have read for Morbidly Curious Bookclub