Archive - December 4, 2020

  Juror Number 2: The Story of a Murder, the Agony of a Neighborhood Efrem  Sigel (Ivory Coast 1965-67) Writers Press Publisher 146 pages November 2020 $19.00 (Hardcover), $15.95 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Dick Lipez (Ethiopia 1962-64) • This valuable short book about the author’s experience with the New York City criminal justice system is more like a long New Yorker article than a book.  But that’s fine  — it’s the kind of well-thought-out and well-written reporting you get drawn into and read all the way through and know afterwards that you’ve learned something. Picked as a juror in a trial involving a Bloods vs. Cripps double homicide outside an East Harlem public housing project, Sigel becomes puzzled over why Abraham Cucuta has gunned down two other young men during a supposed gang truce in what starts out as a friendly dice game. It becomes clear during the three-week trial . . .