Author: Robert R. Meehan
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438488637
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
In the 1960s, the small county of Rockland, north of New York City, went through a period of rapid expansion. Although beneficial, this explosive growth also led to the unwelcome encroachment of crime like the county had never seen before. Enter Robert Meehan, a young, idealistic defense attorney who hatched an impossible scheme to become the first Democrat elected District Attorney of Rockland County in more than half a century. In this compelling page-turner, Meehan takes us through his journey from naive do-gooder to seasoned prosecutor, investigating and solving heinous crimes and surviving an attempt on his life that upended his family's world. This manuscript, completed in 1978, was discovered by Meehan's daughter years after his passing. She has edited the text, researched cases cited by her father, and interviewed some of the key players whose names appear within these pages.
Confessions of a Hayseed DA
Author: Robert R. Meehan
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438488637
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
In the 1960s, the small county of Rockland, north of New York City, went through a period of rapid expansion. Although beneficial, this explosive growth also led to the unwelcome encroachment of crime like the county had never seen before. Enter Robert Meehan, a young, idealistic defense attorney who hatched an impossible scheme to become the first Democrat elected District Attorney of Rockland County in more than half a century. In this compelling page-turner, Meehan takes us through his journey from naive do-gooder to seasoned prosecutor, investigating and solving heinous crimes and surviving an attempt on his life that upended his family's world. This manuscript, completed in 1978, was discovered by Meehan's daughter years after his passing. She has edited the text, researched cases cited by her father, and interviewed some of the key players whose names appear within these pages.
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438488637
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
In the 1960s, the small county of Rockland, north of New York City, went through a period of rapid expansion. Although beneficial, this explosive growth also led to the unwelcome encroachment of crime like the county had never seen before. Enter Robert Meehan, a young, idealistic defense attorney who hatched an impossible scheme to become the first Democrat elected District Attorney of Rockland County in more than half a century. In this compelling page-turner, Meehan takes us through his journey from naive do-gooder to seasoned prosecutor, investigating and solving heinous crimes and surviving an attempt on his life that upended his family's world. This manuscript, completed in 1978, was discovered by Meehan's daughter years after his passing. She has edited the text, researched cases cited by her father, and interviewed some of the key players whose names appear within these pages.
Confessions of a Criminal Lawyer
Author: Seymour Wishman
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1480406066
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
DIVA successful former defense attorney exposes the raw truth about the courtroom “game” and a career spent defending the guilty/divDIV As an advocate for the accused in Newark, New Jersey, criminal lawyer Seymour Wishman defended a vast array of clients, from burglars and thieves to rapists and murderers. Many of them were poor and undereducated, and nearly all of them were guilty. But it was not Wishman’s duty to pass moral judgment on those he represented. His job was to convince a jury to set his clients free or, at the very least, to impose the most lenient punishment permissible by law. And he was very good at his job. Reveling in the adrenaline rush of “winning,” Wishman gave no thought to the ethical considerations of his daily dealings . . . until he was confronted on the street by a rape victim he had humiliated in the courtroom./divDIV /divDIVA fascinating, no-holds-barred memoir of his years spent as “attorney for the damned,” Wishman’s Confessions of a Criminal Lawyer is a startling and important work—an eye-opening, thought-provoking examination of how the justice system works and how it should work—by an attorney who both defended and prosecuted those accused of the most horrific crimes./div
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1480406066
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
DIVA successful former defense attorney exposes the raw truth about the courtroom “game” and a career spent defending the guilty/divDIV As an advocate for the accused in Newark, New Jersey, criminal lawyer Seymour Wishman defended a vast array of clients, from burglars and thieves to rapists and murderers. Many of them were poor and undereducated, and nearly all of them were guilty. But it was not Wishman’s duty to pass moral judgment on those he represented. His job was to convince a jury to set his clients free or, at the very least, to impose the most lenient punishment permissible by law. And he was very good at his job. Reveling in the adrenaline rush of “winning,” Wishman gave no thought to the ethical considerations of his daily dealings . . . until he was confronted on the street by a rape victim he had humiliated in the courtroom./divDIV /divDIVA fascinating, no-holds-barred memoir of his years spent as “attorney for the damned,” Wishman’s Confessions of a Criminal Lawyer is a startling and important work—an eye-opening, thought-provoking examination of how the justice system works and how it should work—by an attorney who both defended and prosecuted those accused of the most horrific crimes./div
Confessions of a Former Prosecutor
Author: Preston Shipp
Publisher: Chalice Press
ISBN: 9780827207530
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Preston Shipp, a former Assistant Attorney General for the State of Tennessee whose work kept offenders in prison, shares his story of how teaching prisoners made him rededicate his life to juvenile justice reform.
Publisher: Chalice Press
ISBN: 9780827207530
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Preston Shipp, a former Assistant Attorney General for the State of Tennessee whose work kept offenders in prison, shares his story of how teaching prisoners made him rededicate his life to juvenile justice reform.
Confessions of an Undercover Agent
Author: Charlie Spillers
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496805216
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
This true story of an ex-Marine who fought crime as an undercover cop, a narcotics agent, and finally a federal prosecutor spans a decade of crime fighting and narrow escapes. Charlie Spillers dealt with a remarkable variety of career criminals, including heroin traffickers, safecrackers, burglars, auto thieves, and members of Mafia and Mexican drug smuggling operations. In this riveting tale, the author recounts fascinating experiences and the creative methods he used to succeed and survive in a difficult and sometimes extremely dangerous underworld life. As a young officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department, ex-Marine Charlie Spillers first went undercover to infiltrate criminal groups to gather intelligence. Working alone and often unarmed, he constantly attempted to walk the thin line between triumph and disaster. When on the hunt, his closest associates were safecrackers, prostitutes, and burglars. His abilities propelled him into years of undercover work inside drug trafficking rings. But the longer he worked, the greater the risks. His final and perhaps most significant action in Baton Rouge was leading a battle against corruption in the police department itself. After Baton Rouge, he joined the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and for the next five years continued working undercover, from the Gulf Coast to Memphis; and from New Orleans to Houston, Texas. He capped off a unique career by becoming a federal prosecutor and the justice attaché for Iraq. In this book, he shares his most intriguing exploits and exciting undercover stings, putting readers in the middle of the action.
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496805216
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 242
Book Description
This true story of an ex-Marine who fought crime as an undercover cop, a narcotics agent, and finally a federal prosecutor spans a decade of crime fighting and narrow escapes. Charlie Spillers dealt with a remarkable variety of career criminals, including heroin traffickers, safecrackers, burglars, auto thieves, and members of Mafia and Mexican drug smuggling operations. In this riveting tale, the author recounts fascinating experiences and the creative methods he used to succeed and survive in a difficult and sometimes extremely dangerous underworld life. As a young officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department, ex-Marine Charlie Spillers first went undercover to infiltrate criminal groups to gather intelligence. Working alone and often unarmed, he constantly attempted to walk the thin line between triumph and disaster. When on the hunt, his closest associates were safecrackers, prostitutes, and burglars. His abilities propelled him into years of undercover work inside drug trafficking rings. But the longer he worked, the greater the risks. His final and perhaps most significant action in Baton Rouge was leading a battle against corruption in the police department itself. After Baton Rouge, he joined the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and for the next five years continued working undercover, from the Gulf Coast to Memphis; and from New Orleans to Houston, Texas. He capped off a unique career by becoming a federal prosecutor and the justice attaché for Iraq. In this book, he shares his most intriguing exploits and exciting undercover stings, putting readers in the middle of the action.
Law's Trials
Author: Richard L. Abel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108691412
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 861
Book Description
The US 'war on terror' has repeatedly violated fundamental rule of law values. When executive and legislature commit such egregious wrongs, courts represent the ultimate defense. Law's Trials: The Performance of Legal Institutions in the US 'War on Terror' offers the first comprehensive account of judicial performance during the sixteen years of the Bush and Obama administrations. Abel examines criminal prosecutions of alleged terrorists, courts martial of military personnel accused of law of war violations, military commission trials of 'high value detainees', habeas corpus petitions by Guantánamo detainees, civil damage actions by victims of both the 'war on terror' and terrorism, and civil liberties violations by government officials and Islamophobic campaigners. Law's Trials identifies successful defenses of the rule of law through qualitative and quantitative analyses, comparing the behavior of judges within and between each category of cases and locating those actions in a comparative history of efforts to redress fundamental injustices.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108691412
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 861
Book Description
The US 'war on terror' has repeatedly violated fundamental rule of law values. When executive and legislature commit such egregious wrongs, courts represent the ultimate defense. Law's Trials: The Performance of Legal Institutions in the US 'War on Terror' offers the first comprehensive account of judicial performance during the sixteen years of the Bush and Obama administrations. Abel examines criminal prosecutions of alleged terrorists, courts martial of military personnel accused of law of war violations, military commission trials of 'high value detainees', habeas corpus petitions by Guantánamo detainees, civil damage actions by victims of both the 'war on terror' and terrorism, and civil liberties violations by government officials and Islamophobic campaigners. Law's Trials identifies successful defenses of the rule of law through qualitative and quantitative analyses, comparing the behavior of judges within and between each category of cases and locating those actions in a comparative history of efforts to redress fundamental injustices.
Trials of Walter Ogrod
Author: Thomas Lowenstein
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1613738048
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
This engrossing investigation into the tragic 1988 murder of four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn and its aftermath leads readers through the facts of the case in compelling, compassionate, and riveting fashion. Award-winning journalist Thomas Lowenstein makes an evenhanded case for the wrongful conviction of Walter Ogrod, a man with autism spectrum disorder who has been on death row since 1996. Informed by police records, court transcripts, interviews, letters and journals, and more, Lowenstein relates how Ogrod was convicted based solely on a confession he signed after 36 hours without sleep and how his fate was sealed by an infamous jailhouse snitch. Presenting explosive new evidence, Lowenstein exposes a larger pattern of prosecutorial misconduct in Philadelphia.
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1613738048
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
This engrossing investigation into the tragic 1988 murder of four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn and its aftermath leads readers through the facts of the case in compelling, compassionate, and riveting fashion. Award-winning journalist Thomas Lowenstein makes an evenhanded case for the wrongful conviction of Walter Ogrod, a man with autism spectrum disorder who has been on death row since 1996. Informed by police records, court transcripts, interviews, letters and journals, and more, Lowenstein relates how Ogrod was convicted based solely on a confession he signed after 36 hours without sleep and how his fate was sealed by an infamous jailhouse snitch. Presenting explosive new evidence, Lowenstein exposes a larger pattern of prosecutorial misconduct in Philadelphia.
For the Prosecution
Author: C.J. Williams
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538138484
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
The vast majority of prosecution work occurs outside of courtrooms and less than 10% of all criminal cases go to trial. Courtroom performance, then, is of little import if prosecutors have not carefully investigated and prepared cases for prosecution. Courtroom performance is at its best, on the other hand, when prosecutors have thoroughly supervised the investigation and prepared the case for trial. In the end, the raw material prosecutors have to work with in courtrooms—the evidence—is a product of all of the work prosecutors perform outside the courtroom. For the Prosecution: How to Prosecute Criminal Cases seeks to provide prosecutors and those who wish to become prosecutors, including law students, guidance on how to prosecute criminal cases from investigation to appeal. This book provides guidance on how to successfully investigate and prosecute criminal cases. Thus, this book focuses on strategies and tactics involved in prosecution, and the soft skills for managing cases and people. This book examines how to think about criminal cases, guide investigations, and break down and organize complex cases in a persuasive manner. The book also examines ways to organize and prioritize caseloads, strategies for taking down criminal organizations, and tactics for turning criminals into cooperators. The book describes how to handle motions practice, prepare a case for trial, and successfully litigate sentencing hearings and appeals. This is not just another trial advocacy book. It is all of the work prosecutors perform outside the courtroom that makes it possible for them to resolve more than 90% of their cases through guilty pleas, and to prevail on the relatively few cases that go to trial. This book focuses on all the laws, duties, strategies and tactics prosecutors execute investigating and prosecuting criminal cases for those who wish to become prosecutors or further their career. Throughout C.J. Williams explores the strategies and tactics involved in prosecuting criminal cases, as well as examines the skills a successful prosecutor needs to develop in order to work with all those involved in the criminal justice system. He even brings his own experiences and lessons learned about prosecuting criminal cases into For the Prosecution, giving the reader more than the typical trial advocacy book.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538138484
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 385
Book Description
The vast majority of prosecution work occurs outside of courtrooms and less than 10% of all criminal cases go to trial. Courtroom performance, then, is of little import if prosecutors have not carefully investigated and prepared cases for prosecution. Courtroom performance is at its best, on the other hand, when prosecutors have thoroughly supervised the investigation and prepared the case for trial. In the end, the raw material prosecutors have to work with in courtrooms—the evidence—is a product of all of the work prosecutors perform outside the courtroom. For the Prosecution: How to Prosecute Criminal Cases seeks to provide prosecutors and those who wish to become prosecutors, including law students, guidance on how to prosecute criminal cases from investigation to appeal. This book provides guidance on how to successfully investigate and prosecute criminal cases. Thus, this book focuses on strategies and tactics involved in prosecution, and the soft skills for managing cases and people. This book examines how to think about criminal cases, guide investigations, and break down and organize complex cases in a persuasive manner. The book also examines ways to organize and prioritize caseloads, strategies for taking down criminal organizations, and tactics for turning criminals into cooperators. The book describes how to handle motions practice, prepare a case for trial, and successfully litigate sentencing hearings and appeals. This is not just another trial advocacy book. It is all of the work prosecutors perform outside the courtroom that makes it possible for them to resolve more than 90% of their cases through guilty pleas, and to prevail on the relatively few cases that go to trial. This book focuses on all the laws, duties, strategies and tactics prosecutors execute investigating and prosecuting criminal cases for those who wish to become prosecutors or further their career. Throughout C.J. Williams explores the strategies and tactics involved in prosecuting criminal cases, as well as examines the skills a successful prosecutor needs to develop in order to work with all those involved in the criminal justice system. He even brings his own experiences and lessons learned about prosecuting criminal cases into For the Prosecution, giving the reader more than the typical trial advocacy book.
Law's Infamy
Author: Austin Sarat
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479812099
Category : LAW
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Book Description
"This book takes up the question of whether and how to tell the story of the law's infamy. It examines when and why the word infamy should be used to characterize legal decisions or actions taken in the name of the law. It does so while acknowledging that law's infamy by no means a familiar locution. More commonly the stories we tell of law's failures talk of injustices not infamy. Labelling a legal decision infamous suggests a distinctive kind of injustice, one which is particularly evil or wicked. Doing so means that such a decision cannot be redeemed or reformed; it can only be repudiated"--
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479812099
Category : LAW
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Book Description
"This book takes up the question of whether and how to tell the story of the law's infamy. It examines when and why the word infamy should be used to characterize legal decisions or actions taken in the name of the law. It does so while acknowledging that law's infamy by no means a familiar locution. More commonly the stories we tell of law's failures talk of injustices not infamy. Labelling a legal decision infamous suggests a distinctive kind of injustice, one which is particularly evil or wicked. Doing so means that such a decision cannot be redeemed or reformed; it can only be repudiated"--
Coerced Confessions
Author: Susan Berk-Seligson
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110213486
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
The book presents a discourse analysis of police interrogations involving U.S. Hispanic suspects accused of crimes. The study is unique in that it concentrates on interrogations involving suspects whose first language is not English and police officers who have a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish. It examines the pitfalls of using police officers as interpreters at custodial interrogations. Using an interactional sociolinguistic discourse analytical approach, the book offers a microlinguistic examination of interrogations involving persons accused of murder, child molestation, and kidnapping. Communication difficulties are shown to arise from suspects' limited proficiency in English and police officers' equally limited proficiency in Spanish, coupled with the unwillingness of these officers to remain in interpreter footing. The volume demonstrates how pidginization and asymmetrical communicative accommodation can emerge in such situations of highly unequal power relations. It also demonstrates how cultural factors such as acquiescence to interlocutors of greater authority and higher socioeconomic status can lead persons of certain Latin American backgrounds to engage in "gratuitous concurrence", answering "yes" to police questions even when it is clear that that these yes-tokens are not truly affirmative responses to those questions. In addition, the book provides evidence of the kinds of abuse that can result from police interrogations that are not electronically recorded. Coerced Confessions reviews appellate cases involving police interpreters spanning a thirty-four-year period, and concludes that the Miranda rights are placed in jeopardy when a police officer is assigned the role of interpreter at a custodial interrogation.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110213486
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
The book presents a discourse analysis of police interrogations involving U.S. Hispanic suspects accused of crimes. The study is unique in that it concentrates on interrogations involving suspects whose first language is not English and police officers who have a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish. It examines the pitfalls of using police officers as interpreters at custodial interrogations. Using an interactional sociolinguistic discourse analytical approach, the book offers a microlinguistic examination of interrogations involving persons accused of murder, child molestation, and kidnapping. Communication difficulties are shown to arise from suspects' limited proficiency in English and police officers' equally limited proficiency in Spanish, coupled with the unwillingness of these officers to remain in interpreter footing. The volume demonstrates how pidginization and asymmetrical communicative accommodation can emerge in such situations of highly unequal power relations. It also demonstrates how cultural factors such as acquiescence to interlocutors of greater authority and higher socioeconomic status can lead persons of certain Latin American backgrounds to engage in "gratuitous concurrence", answering "yes" to police questions even when it is clear that that these yes-tokens are not truly affirmative responses to those questions. In addition, the book provides evidence of the kinds of abuse that can result from police interrogations that are not electronically recorded. Coerced Confessions reviews appellate cases involving police interpreters spanning a thirty-four-year period, and concludes that the Miranda rights are placed in jeopardy when a police officer is assigned the role of interpreter at a custodial interrogation.
A Criminal Injustice
Author: Richard Firstman
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345509676
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 609
Book Description
When he went to bed on the night of September 6, 1988, seventeen-year-old Marty Tankleff was a typical kid in the upscale Long Island community of Belle Terre. He was looking forward to starting his senior year at Earl L. Vandermeulen High School the next day. But instead, Marty woke in the morning to find his parents brutally bludgeoned, their throats slashed. His mother, Arlene, was dead. His father, Seymour, was barely alive and would die a month later. With remarkable self-possession, Marty called 911 to summon help. And when homicide detective James McCready arrived on the scene an hour later, Marty told him he believed he knew who was responsible: Jerry Steuerman, his father’s business partner. Steuerman owed Seymour more than half a million dollars, had recently threatened him, and had been the last to leave a high-stakes poker game at the Tankleffs’ home the night before. However, McCready inexplicably dismissed Steuerman as a suspect. Instead, he fastened on Marty as the prime suspect–indeed, his only one. Before the day was out, the police announced that Marty had confessed to the crimes. But Marty insisted the confession was fabricated by the police. And a week later, Steuerman faked his own death and fled to California under an alias. Yet the police and prosecutors remained fixated on Marty–and two years later, he was convicted on murder charges and sentenced to fifty years in prison. But Marty’s unbelievable odyssey was just beginning. With the support of his family, he set out to prove his innocence and gain his freedom. For ten years, disappointment followed disappointment as appeals to state and federal courts were denied. Still, Marty never gave up. He persuaded Jay Salpeter, a retired NYPD detective turned private eye, to look into his case. At first it was just another job for Salpeter. As he dug into the evidence, though, he began to see signs of gross ineptitude or worse: Leads ignored. Conflicts of interest swept under the rug. A shocking betrayal of public trust by Suffolk County law enforcement that went well beyond a simple miscarriage of justice. After Salpeter’s discoveries brought national media attention to the case, Marty’s conviction was finally vacated in 2007, and New York’s governor appointed a special prosecutor to reopen the twenty-year-old case. At the same time, the State Investigation Commission announced an inquiry into Suffolk County’s handling of what has come to be widely viewed as one of America’s most disturbing wrongful conviction cases. As gripping as a Grisham novel, A Criminal Injustice is the story of an innocent man’s tenacious fight for freedom, an investigator’s dogged search for the truth. It is a searing indictment of justice in America.
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345509676
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 609
Book Description
When he went to bed on the night of September 6, 1988, seventeen-year-old Marty Tankleff was a typical kid in the upscale Long Island community of Belle Terre. He was looking forward to starting his senior year at Earl L. Vandermeulen High School the next day. But instead, Marty woke in the morning to find his parents brutally bludgeoned, their throats slashed. His mother, Arlene, was dead. His father, Seymour, was barely alive and would die a month later. With remarkable self-possession, Marty called 911 to summon help. And when homicide detective James McCready arrived on the scene an hour later, Marty told him he believed he knew who was responsible: Jerry Steuerman, his father’s business partner. Steuerman owed Seymour more than half a million dollars, had recently threatened him, and had been the last to leave a high-stakes poker game at the Tankleffs’ home the night before. However, McCready inexplicably dismissed Steuerman as a suspect. Instead, he fastened on Marty as the prime suspect–indeed, his only one. Before the day was out, the police announced that Marty had confessed to the crimes. But Marty insisted the confession was fabricated by the police. And a week later, Steuerman faked his own death and fled to California under an alias. Yet the police and prosecutors remained fixated on Marty–and two years later, he was convicted on murder charges and sentenced to fifty years in prison. But Marty’s unbelievable odyssey was just beginning. With the support of his family, he set out to prove his innocence and gain his freedom. For ten years, disappointment followed disappointment as appeals to state and federal courts were denied. Still, Marty never gave up. He persuaded Jay Salpeter, a retired NYPD detective turned private eye, to look into his case. At first it was just another job for Salpeter. As he dug into the evidence, though, he began to see signs of gross ineptitude or worse: Leads ignored. Conflicts of interest swept under the rug. A shocking betrayal of public trust by Suffolk County law enforcement that went well beyond a simple miscarriage of justice. After Salpeter’s discoveries brought national media attention to the case, Marty’s conviction was finally vacated in 2007, and New York’s governor appointed a special prosecutor to reopen the twenty-year-old case. At the same time, the State Investigation Commission announced an inquiry into Suffolk County’s handling of what has come to be widely viewed as one of America’s most disturbing wrongful conviction cases. As gripping as a Grisham novel, A Criminal Injustice is the story of an innocent man’s tenacious fight for freedom, an investigator’s dogged search for the truth. It is a searing indictment of justice in America.