Three Felonies A Day

How the Feds Target the Innocent

By: Harvey Silverglate, Alan M. Dershowitz - foreword

Narrated by: Chris Sorensen

Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. 

In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to "white collar criminals," state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance.

©2011 Harvey A. Silverglate (P)2018 Tantor

Audible edition is not very exciting

Just into 30 minutes of this audible book and feel it’s a bit boring. The description of case after case with legal jargons is not the exciting content I expected. And the bland, almost robot like narration doesn’t help either.

falls short of thesis

Worth the read and price. however the book never details how the common person commits three felonies a day. instead the book focuses on high profile or professional people unfairly persecuted by federals.

Scary

What everyone should be reading as we make our way through life in these United States.

must read book for any American adult

This book should be a must read for any American. Such important context and information. We are not free, don’t be fooled. Be aware, be vigilant.

Reader is super dry

This book was recommended by a friend of mine who serves as a field agent for the FBI. I was very excited to listen to it and the subject matter interstate me greatly. Imagine my horror when I discovered the reader sounded like he was a newscaster reading titles, adding tonal inflections for dramatic affect instead of speaking normally. It completely ruined the book and my ability to focus on it, my mind often wandering. I gave it about 2 solid hours but had to return it.

a fascinating adventure into the legal world

the narrator's voice is monotone and annoying but the content does prevail in a strong Manner.

if the narrator want so annoying I'd like more

the narrator is so annoying it is almost unlistenable. it has almost ruined of the book for me

Title is a little misleading. Annoying reader.

The book was generally good and makes some interesting points. The title and description are misleading. This book really talks about some issues that occur sure to shifting laws and some laws that get refined (usually) by court precedence that would make the person being prosecuted not guilty of breaking a law. It's so narrow as to not be relevant to the average person.

There are some areas where details aren't fully given that might undermine the author's arguments, but aside from that it's very informative.

However the narrator has the annoying habit of ending EVERY sentence with a rising intonation. It may grate on you for a bit when you start.

A interesting read.

I enjoyed it but it was not quite what I expected, I seemed to get lost in how the story seemed to focus around major corporate players as I was expected it to be more centered around the average American for instance. But it was good enough that I would listen to it again.

makes you think, but hard to understand

much of the felonies it discusses is related to white collar crime, and involves complex financial lingo that went way over my head.