As DNA evidence scandals and other injustices in the criminal justice system continue to call into question numerous convictions, the message contained in the new book by criminal defense attorney and author Frank Abrams feels increasingly urgent.

“I could not live with myself if I did not write this book,” Abrams said in a recent interview. “In the criminal justice system, they treat people like animals. They treat them like fighting roosters. They make them mean and angry toward each other — and somebody in the end makes money.”

The Cockfight by Frank Abrams

In his new book, The Cockfight, DNA evidence becomes the nail in the coffin for a teacher falsely accused of sexual assault. But as readers will learn, DNA tests can be contaminated, and results can be wrong — sometimes intentionally.

“When someone’s life and someone’s freedom are at stake, we can’t rely solely on DNA test results without thorough investigation and scrutiny,” Abrams said.

Through a riveting narrative, The Cockfight introduces readers to William Bradford, an educator recently named “Teacher of the Year” who was arrested and charged for the attempted rape of a 14-year-old student during a class trip to Washington, D.C. Married with two kids, Bradford would spend time in a hellhole of a jail in South Georgia and eventually take up residence under a bridge — all because of a lie.

Although fiction, many of the facts concerning the law and its application are or were authentic at the time the story is set, and are still factual, Abrams explained.

The Cockfight is the story of the teacher’s fight to clear his name, of the people around him and how the system impacted all of them, as stories of actual cockfighting fill the backdrop with the dismal “kill or be killed” dread that descends on many people caught up in an often unjust “justice” system.

“There are many victims of our unjust and unforgiving ‘justice’ system. Once they are caught in its web, it is difficult if not impossible to extricate oneself,” Abrams said.

Abrams noted that American prisons are filled with more prisoners per capita than virtually every other country and that the American prison population has grown 500 percent in the last 40 years thanks, in part, to the operative assumption that once charged, always guilty.

“I wrote The Cockfight to emphasize what can happen when things go wrong,” Abrams added. “It is my hope that the message in this book leads to both a change in attitude and action, that injustice will no longer be tolerated, and that a fair, honest and just system will take its place.”