ATTORNEY FOR THE DAMNED A Lawyer's Life with the Criminally Insane

Hardback. In a series of brilliantly told and haunting stories, the author, a prominent lawyer for the criminally insane, recounts some of his most dramatic and bizarre cases in a trenchant assessment of a legal system gone awry. As the stories unfold, we witness an idealistic young lawyer become ever more troubled as he succeeds, often through his brilliant courtroom strategy, in gaining freedom for men who leave only to kill again. We also hear frightening tales of a system so inept that a serial killer who has committed numerous rapes and murders is released because a representative from the DA's office forgets to show up at his hearing. In another story we are told of a young and confused immigrant who, having committed a minor crime, is misdiagnosed as psychotic because of his faulty English and languishes for years in the back wards of a state-run psychiatric prison. Through such cases, we see exactly how both the perpetrator and the public are failed as often-dangerous people find their way back to society while victims of the system remain locked behind hospital doors. We also hear rare stories of redemption, including that of the cannibal killer who meets a psychotic murderess in the state psychiatric hospital. They fall in love, are eventually released, marry and now live peaceably in one of New York's nicer suburbs. 226pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in Nr. F. dw.