Trials Books

John Demanjuk was his the headlines when he was stripped of his citizenship and sent from America to Israel to stand trial for war crimes. It was thought that he was a prison guard known as "Ivan the Terrrible." This is the story of his trial and the appeals which followed it.

The writer is a Israeli Lawyer who had considerable experience in the use of identification evidence. He volunteered to assist with the representation of Demanjuk. Another lawyer from America had the major role in the trial.

The author is a man of considerable personal and moral courage. His decision to represent Demanjuk led to him being criticised heavily and he was also seriously assaulted. In this assault acid was thrown in his face and as a result he suffered permanent eye damage.

At trial Demanjuk was found guilty despite the strength of evidence being highly questionable. The author however was not satisfied with this outcome and went to Russia to research material to establish the innocence of his client.

This research showed clearly that the real "Ivan the Terrible" had died during the war . This occurred when prisoners rebelled and killed him. It was thus clear that not only was the evidence against Demanjuk questionable, but in reality he was clearly innocent.

Despite this the Israeli appeal court kept him in custody for some time deciding if it would find him guilty of an alternate charge of being a concentration camp guard at another camp. This was despite the fact that such a decision would have been questionable due to the nature of the extradition proceedings.

The book is not only the product of a brave and skilled lawyer it is a valuable illustration of the sorts of reasons why court cases can go wrong and the innocent punished. Highly recommended.

I had the fortune of taking Professor Johannsen's Civil War history class at the University of Illinois. "Democracy on Trial" was the main text used in that course and I could hardly put it down. Dr. Johannsen draws together speeches, articles, personal correspondences, and contemporary works of poetry and fiction that really provide the reader a look back at the years leading to and including the Civil War. Each selection is insightfully introduced by the author and gives added value and enjoyment to the reader. An important work that provides grassroots history together with American culture, politics, and war.

David Clennon and Stephanie Zimbalist head a first-rate cast in this excellent, thought-provoking play produced by L.A. Theatre Works. It's a story, and performance, I won't soon forget!

This is an amazing, historic story about one of the United States early serial murderers. Calhoun was a cold blooded ruthless killer, Gun slinging Cowboy, Desperado, Indian fighter, Texas Ranger,and Civil War soldier. This is his pre-execution confession of his remarkable and troubled life in a raw, revealing, brutally honest story penned by his executioner Capt. Green. The story spans the country from Baltimore, South Carolina, Arizona, Illinois, Mexico, and finally Bardstown Ky.

This was an interesting book which explains much more than who did what. It takes the time to discuss each individual so that you may better understand the phenomenon of the trials as a whole. It helps you understand how a few bored, dowarless girls could manipulate an entire town.

1857 was an important year for literature, and for sex. It was either an _annus mirabilis_ or _annus horribilis_, depending on your point of view. _Horribilis_, says Elisabeth Ladenson in _Dirt for Art's Sake: Books on Trial from Madame Bovary to Lolita_ (Cornell University Press). It was the year in which _Madame Bovary_ was published and then prosecuted, as well as Baudelaire's _Les Fleurs du Mal_. The year also saw the Obscene Publications Act in England. That prosecutors were able to harass the authors and publishers of these books, as well as the other later ones that Ladenson considers, seems now quaint but also sad. Some of these books are among the highest of the classics, and the others gained far more infamy because of their prosecutions than their literary worth would have earned them. The unmemorable smut that is the huge bulk of pornography isn't much considered here (this is _Dirt for Art's Sake_, after all), but Ladenson's witty and thorough book can only remind the reader that this sort of societal fussing over what people can read, especially screening for the benefit of a supposed impressionable "young person", is wasted effort. It annoys readers, authors, and publishers, and has from time to time kept important books out of the hands of those who could appreciate them.

_Madam Bovary_ is Flaubert's most famous work, and its trial is intimately connected with the book. The problem as the French government saw it was that literature was to be useful and encourage moral order; literature that threatened the state was to be suppressed. The defense was two-pronged. First, there was "art for art's sake", that art exists independently of conventional morality. The other, somewhat contradictory, defense was that art depicts by means of realism, that if there were sordid aspects of life, they should still be fearlessly presented. But Flaubert's defense still relied upon the upholding of morality; his realistic depiction of the adultery of Emma Bovary was only to promote a higher virtue. Emma might not be a positive example, but served as a bad example to keep readers from making the same errors themselves. It is hard to see how even the prudish objected to the other indisputable member of the literary canon included here, unless they were given a list of four letter words that are included in the text, or specific pointers to the pages where Mr. Bloom goes to the outhouse or where sexual activity takes place. _Ulysses_ is, after all, a big book, full of a close examination of three characters and their one ordinary day in Dublin, so "naughty" themes are far from predominant. The book is not as easy to read as real porn, and only the misguided might pick it up hoping quickly to find spicy bits; Joyce's novel, Ladenson says, "provides its own inaccessibility." The classic 1933 decision allowing the book into the US, written by Judge John Woolsey and included as a preface to the work, gives the judge's opinion that while parts of the text may be "somewhat emetic, nowhere does it tend to be an aphrodisiac."

Woolsey's was a limited judgement; it meant that the "emetic" parts of _Ulysses_ redeemed the whole. (It is also a limited reading of the book, which tends more to comedy and ebullience than to outrageousness.) Because of this, the decision didn't close the issue of censoring frank literature, which had to be legally settled for _Lady Chatterley's Lover_, _Tropic of Cancer_, and _Lolita_, all of which have chapters here. (Lolita was a special case in which there could be no objection to the words in the book, but to the subject, a man's fascination for a pre-pubescent female.) Ladenson has read them all, and the legal decisions concerning them, and has not only read the books but seen the movies. Her perceptive readings of the books makes for a fine social history of censorship of artistic works. She has an agreeable sense of humor, pleasing in a scholastic work, and lets us enjoy sniggering at the foolish efforts of prudes trying to snip away at great literature. The absurdity of the censors' efforts is well displayed, as is, alas, their pigheaded persistence through the centuries.

This true story has great insight into race relations in small-town midwest/southern America in the early 1900s. It is a spellbinding tale that I couldn't put down until I had read the last page. Now, nearly 100 years later, it is hard to believe that lynch mobs and frontier justice still existed in the 20th century in this small western Kentucky town that is my home. Judge (now Kentucky Supreme Court Justice) Cunningham is a great writer and storyteller. I recommend this book to anyone interested in west Kentucky history, lynch mob history, race relations (then and now), or criminal justice, or to anyone who just wants to read a good story. Not only is this book very insightful, it is very entertaining.

Before I read this book, I had no idea what I didn't know. An easy read, this book is clear, to the point, and full of using tips and strategies. I am using the disc that is included to organize my files. I have new strategies to prepare my witnesses. I finally understand the importance of organizing my information and find that I'm even settling my cases more effectively. Thanks, Lynne and Steve, for an indispensable addition to my law library. J Zapoleon

A must read for anyone who's ever had an interest in DNA technology. I read the book from cover to cover without putting it down. The author makes this complex subject understandable to anyone.

First, I need to mention that I met the author about one year ago. We occasionally ride the train together, so when she mentioned she wrote a book I just had to read it.

I found this book to be very interesting. For instance, I learned that there are six different forms of energy and what they are. I also discovered that the usefulness of commercially available biomedical tools can sometimes be limited. These limits can be based on the type of study and also the ethnicity of the test subject. As a lay person I would not have expected ethnicity to affect the output of a monitoring tool. I was especially impressed with how innovative the author had to be when the usefulness of some of the commercially available biomedical tools used in the study fell short of their ability.

The author covered all her bases in the book, from selecting her subjects to accounting for the many variances in external factors that could affect the results. This text is thorough and typical in the clinical sense and the book is well researched. The appendix is chock full of supporting study materials.

From my point of view, this book is geared to a target audience. It would be a valuable resource to college students doing clinical work or someone who has an interest in how studies are done, such as researchers in any field. A doctorate student studying physiology would also benefit from this text.

I enjoyed the book and learned something from it and I'm not your typical audience for a text such as this. The mathematical data in the book is beyond my comprehension, so in essence I cannot comment or review on that data. However, the material I understood was without a doubt "5 stars."