The Powerful Prosecutor

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Loura: If there's one person in the justice system who could do something about human misery, surely it's the powerful prosecutor. She remembers a fellow prosecutor offering to show her how to interrogate a witness. Loura says she failed to appreciate fully what those battles of allegiance would one day be. "It's very difficult to explain what it's like to be, particularly a black or brown person," writes Loura.

When Laura Coates decided to become a prosecutor in Washington, D.C., she was told that the job would be “human misery.” She says she remembers thinking, “If there's one person in the justice system who could do something about human misery, surely, it's the powerful prosecutor.” After four years, she quit.

Laura’s book is Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight For Fairness.

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