Death Is Different

Death Is Different: A Lawyer's Story is a sardonic memoir in which the author recounts his coming of age as a young and inexperienced trial lawyer in 1986. It is the autobiographical account of the author's representation of a previously convicted murderer after police rushed to charge the ex-con with the murder of a sadistically brutal man who was despised and feared by just about everyone who knew him. During the litigation the young attorney discovers some hard truths about the politics of the death penalty and, in the process, learns that justice is elusive but worth fighting for. He concludes that the death penalty insidiously undermines everything we say we believe in as Americans, and as human beings. This self-effacing, but triumphant, account is a tribute to the courage of every man and woman that has faced an overwhelming challenge and drawn upon something he or she may not have ever known they possessed: courage. Finally, it is a belated tribute to the "greatest generation" who instilled in their children a respect for truth and fairness and watched over us as we took the baton from them into our own battles.