Injustice Town - by Rick Tulsky (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A New Yorker Best Book of 2026

Winner of the Crime Con CLUE Award for Book of the Year

"Comprehensive and sobering. Tulsky details McIntyre's naïve certainty that the truth would come out during his trial, his alternation between hope and despair as his case went through the legal system, and the many obstacles before his eventual exoneration, in 2017. A worthy entry in the canon of American injustice."--The New Yorker

"Yet another maddening, frustrating, overwhelming, outrageous, and unbelievable story of corrupt justice in America. This one, though, is handled by Rick Tulsky, a dogged investigator, journalist, lawyer, advocate, and gifted writer."--John Grisham, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Firm and Framed

The powerful story of a falsely imprisoned man and a sweeping indictment of a city and the criminal justice system by a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist.

"A tour de force of reporting and revelation: it is the best expose of corruption I have ever read. Anybody who cares about what is happening in America should read it."--Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights and The Mosquito Bowl

When the bodies of two Black men were found sitting with a crackpipe in a parked car in a rundown section of town in 1994, it seemed just another day in Kansas City, Kansas. The swift arrest and conviction of a seventeen-year-old Black kid from a broken home raised no eyebrows either.

And yet, thirty years later, Lamonte McIntyre would prove to be the David that took down the Goliath of corruption that had long controlled the city's power structure and enveloped the city's justice system

But the effort to prove Lamonte's innocence opened a Pandora's box. Before it was over, the fight to win Lamonte's exoneration exposed corrupt police and prosecutors, incompetent court-appointed defense lawyers, and a judge who violated ethical standards by his secret past relationship with the prosecutor, whom he favored in his rulings.

Injustice Town follows Lamonte's case from its harrowing beginning to its triumphant end and beyond, including the legal tsunami that came in its wake, that engulfed prosecutors, attorneys, and judges. Most shockingly, the lead cop on the case was indicted by the Department of Justice for the widespread abuses he had committed years earlier on women in the Black community of Kansas City Kansas. Abuses documented by Lamonte's team. The criminal case ended, literally, with a bang, denying Lamonte and those whom the detective hurt, the chance for them to seek their own justice.

Rick Tulsky, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, goes beyond the courthouse, exposing the ways in which corruption flourished for decades in an erstwhile quiet Midwest town, a town once dedicated to justice and equality.

A lawyer by training as well as a reporter, Tulsky's narrative not only brings Lamonte's story to vivid life, it will empower cities, counties, states, and everyday citizens with a blueprint for equal justice. At a time when the federal government is abdicating its responsibility for demanding fairness and justice, it is up to states, local governments, and we the people look to ways they can act. Vivid and unforgettable, Injustice Town tells the story of one man and shows us a vision of what a better future could be.

"Among the most vicious and systemic civil rights train wrecks in an American city."--Barry Scheck, cofounder of the Innocence Project

In early printings of the book, the image of Tom Dailey is misidentified. The correction has been made to the ebook and later printings.

Review Quotes

"Injustice Town is both a gripping true-crime story and an exposé of systemic rot at the core of a Midwest city's government and police department. Tulsky, a lawyer, journalist, professor, and founder of Injustice Watch, has written a tour-de-force narrative illustrating how Lamonte McIntyre's case exposes the failings of our local and national criminal justice systems."--Booklist

"Investigative reporter Tulsky debuts with a harrowing true crime narrative about 17-year-old Lamonte McIntyre, who was unjustly convicted of murder by a dirty cop, an unethical DA, and a judge who had a secret past relationship with the prosecutor. Tulsky meticulously traces the perfect storm of prejudice and corruption that left McIntyre vulnerable, and wrenchingly describes his unsteady efforts to rejoin society as an adult. This horrifying account of injustice and new beginnings leaves a mark."--Publishers Weekly

"Rick Tulsky has done it again: A beautifully written, true story that exposes dark, big truths about America's criminal justice system. Every prosecutor, police officer, judge, and defense attorney who wants to do the right thing will do better after reading this memorable book."--Lawrence Krasner, lawyer and 26th District Attorney of Philadelphia

"A compelling story of a massive failure of the legal system: how a Black youth lost 23 years of his life due to racism, police corruption, prosecutorial misconduct and the incompetence of court appointed lawyers."--Stephen Bright, law professor, former director of Southern Center for Human Rights, and co-author of Fear of Too Much Justice

"Tulsky details a history of racism and corruption that stretched back for decades in Kansas City political circles and the police force. This book is a page-turner; its tension is enhanced by language as crisp as a court reporter's and as intimate as an inmate's private journal. A gripping exposé reveals that the true criminal is not the man behind bars."--Kirkus Reviews

"Injustice Town is appalling and inspiring - appalling because the criminal justice system conspired against Lamonte McIntyre, and inspiring because journalist Rick Tulsky has fought to deliver long-delayed justice to an innocent man. This is a vital and compelling book that exposes the racism baked into our justice system. A triumph of investigative reporting."--David Zucchino, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Wilmington's Lie

"In this gripping narrative, Rick Tulsky reveals a network of police, prosecutors and judges that was, itself, literally criminal when it ensnared the teenaged Lamonte McIntyre for a crime he did not commit. Tulsky excavates the case through McIntyre's eventual exoneration but also goes further, outlining common-sense reforms. This book is essential reading for those who care about actual justice in America."--Cynthia Tucker, Pulitzer prize-winning former editorial page editor, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Injustice Town is the unforgettable chronicle of how an innocent man spent half his life in prison, doomed by a justice system contorted by corrupt cops, incompetent lawyers, a compromised judge and intimidated witnesses."--Bill Marimow, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, former Editor-in-Chief of The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Rick Tulsky's account of the outrageous injustice done to LaMonte McIntyre in Kansas City, Kansas delivers a harsh blow to faith in our criminal justice system. A dirty cop, utterly incompetent defense lawyers, and an unethical prosecutor literally in bed with the judge, it is a story of mind-boggling malfeasance. It also illustrates how Kansas makes it easy to lock up anyone its authorities deem a 'criminal type.' One need only glance at prison demographics to see who fits that description."-- "Mark Bowden, New York Times betselling author of Black Hawk Down "

About the Author

Rick Tulsky began writing about abusive police and unjust court systems as a young reporter in Jackson Mississippi and that focus has defined his work ever since. Rick became a lawyer in Philadelphia and he continued exposing injustices on the staff of newspapers in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Jose. His work has won more than two dozen national awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, and he was a Pulitzer finalist two additional times. In 2011 Rick moved back to his hometown and joined the faculty of Northwestern University's journalism school and co-founded a nonprofit newsroom, Injustice Watch in 2015. It was there that Rick first heard about Lamonte McIntyre, a story that took over his professional life. Rick lives in Evanston, Illinois, with his wife, Kim. They have two terrific children, Eric and Elizabeth, and one fabulous dog, Jasper.