Endangered

May 19, 2014
Cush's engaging debut, set in the courtroom, employs an intriguing premise. In January 2009, Malik Williams is an African-American 15-year-old living in poor, rundown west Philadelphia, when the police wrongfully arrest him for the fatal shooting of Troy Barnes, a school friend and known drug dealer. Janae, a single mother raising Malik and working as a hospital cafeteria cashier, accepts the offer from the Center for the Protection of Human Rightsâheaded by the passionate veteran attorney Roger Whitfordâto defend Malik. Roger presents Janae with an unusual, though not original, defense, arguing how "African-American boys ought to be deemed legally endangered" and views Malik's homicide case in a broader context as the catalyst to effect much-needed black male juvenile prison reform. Calvin Moore, an ambitious African-American attorney at a large prestigious law firm and from the same rough neighborhood as the Williams, signs on as the co-counsel. As Roger and Calvin maneuver to block the prosecution's attempts to transfer Malik's case to adult court with a higher rate of convictions, Janae uses the neighborhood grapevine to learn the truth about what happened at Troy's murder scene. Cush has crafted a compassionate story that commands the reader's attention.

June 1, 2014
An African-American teen accused of murder experiences the terror of the court system while his mother and his lawyers pursue an unusual argument for justice.It's only 22 days into the New Year as this desperate novel begins, and there have already been 29 murders in Philadelphia. Cush (Tattered Bonds, 2006) draws on her experience in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office to paint a frightening picture of the awful day-to-day realities faced by impoverished children accused of crimes. The child at issue here is 15-year-old Malik Williams, who finds himself violently slammed to the ground by a white police officer and charged with the murder of another black kid; he's to be tried as an adult for a crime he did not commit. His mother, Janae, is a cafeteria worker and a woman of faith who lacks the resources to help her only child. She's suspicious when approached by Roger Whitford, a human rights attorney who wants to spark a national debate over Malik's defense. "I believe we can make a solid argument that African-American boys ought to be deemed legally endangered," he tells a startled Janae. "Their very lives are threatened with extinction, or at least any meaningful existence, and thereby ought to be afforded certain protections based on their classification as such." It's a bold and risky defense, but Janae is running out of options. Buoyed by the genius of Calvin Moore, an ambitious defense attorney on loan from a high-end firm, Malik's defenders navigate the hostile and dangerous ground between the justice system, the media and the American public. There's not much mystery-Malik's defense eventually becomes a case of figuring out who really committed the crime-but Cush makes a passionate argument for the defense of young men whose only crimes were being born black in America.A frightening and realistic story about the realities of racism, poverty and injustice in the Obama era.

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July 1, 2014
When 15-year-old Malik Williams is arrested for a murder he didn't commit, his pro bono attorney, celebrated civil rights lawyer Roger Whitford of the Center for the Protection of Human Rights, mounts an unusual defense, arguing that the Endangered Species Act should be extended to black boys like Malik, whose lives are devastatingly at risk. It's an intriguing idea but one that gets lost as the issue-driven novel becomes, instead, an indictment of the American system of justice ( the high incarceration rate of young black males is inextricably linked to their race ). The book is filled with statistics and factoids supporting that notion, so many that the plot occasionally gets lost among the numbers. Sadly, the author is no stylist ( her complexion looked as if permanently kissed by the sun's intensity ), and the plot, which hinges on whether Malik will be tried as an adult, is full of familiar characters, including the virtuous defense attorney and the villainous prosecutor. That said, the author's passion for her subject redeems the novel from its occasional lapses and, importantly, invites readers to revisit their assumptions and rethink the meaning of justice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)