Being a prosecutor is a big job. I dare say it’s a courageous calling. To be Black and female, the burden can be heavier, but the role is necessary. Laura Coates knows this all too well.
The CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst was a federal prosecutor, an attorney working in the DOJ. Her hope and intention was that each case would represent a dot on the arc that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. hoped would bend towards justice. But as she became entrenched in the role, she found herself torn repeatedly between upholding her oath as a public servant, and upholding her principles and lived experiences. After all, as a Black woman, wife and mother, she could see the injustices in the justice system through that lens.
And she paints a brutally honest portrait about the injustices she witnessed in her new memoir, Just Pursuit.
Listen in as she shares more about her journey as a prosecutor, why she wrote this story and what we can learn from it– especially the importance of representation in our courtrooms.