Case of a Lifetime: A Criminal Defense Lawyer's Story |  | Author: Abbe Smith
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
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Seller: Schomberg & Son Books
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 606517
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0230614337
Dewey Decimal Number: 345.7476202523
EAN: 9780230614338
ASIN: 0230614337
Publication Date: September 1, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A recent study estimates that thousands of innocent people are wrongfully imprisoned each year in the United States. Some are exonerated through DNA evidence, but many more languish in prison because their convictions were based on faulty eyewitness accounts and no DNA is available. Prominent criminal lawyer and law professor Abbe Smith weaves together real life cases to show what it is like to champion the rights of the accused. Smith describes the moral and ethical dilemmas of representing the guilty and the weighty burden of fighting for the innocent, including the victorious story of how she helped free a woman wrongly imprisoned for nearly three decades. For fans of Law and Order and investigative news programs like 20/20, Case of a Lifetime is a chilling look at what really determines a person's innocence.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Especially Meaningful for Experienced, but Frustrated, Lawyers in All Fields January 16, 2009
Elizabeth M. Opalka (Naples, FL)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I just finished reading Case of a Lifetime: A Criminal Defense Lawyer's Story, by Abbe Smith. As a tax attorney for the past ten years, I was surprised by how much I could identify with the book's description of issues that criminal defense lawyers typically face. Like criminal defense lawyers, I fight the government, but in the form of the IRS and state tax departments. Although my clients don't face prison sentences, they do face large tax bills and penalties. I am often in the position of having to urge clients to agree to financial settlements rather than go to court, even when they have a good case. The system can be troubling, personally. One of this book's lessons is that perserverance pays.
Abbe Smith's book also opened my eyes to the possibility that there are many people in America who are wrongly imprisoned but do not have a chance of being exonerated through DNA evidence. This book has inspired me to get involved in such a case in my state, on a pro bono basis. At a time when I am looking for something to inspire more passion in my professional life, I feel called to an area of the law that I never considered before. What could be more meaningful and fulfilling than fighting for an innocent person?
a moving story August 20, 2008
giftgiver (Boston, MA)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is an incredible book which shows the real problems with the criminal justice system. The reviewer who criticizes Ms. Smith for believing in her client's innocence has clearly missed the point. Most criminal defense attorneys would find it much easier to defend a guilty client, and in fact some of the most skeptical people I have ever met are public defenders. The most important thing about this book is that Ms. Smith constantly reexamines her point of view and potential emotional conflicts, and is incredibly honest with the reader.
two-thirds thru this very gripping book... September 22, 2008
Sheila Curran (Tallahassee, FL)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I really am enjoying reading this book, which is clear, compelling and poignant...and sheds light on a much-ignored fact about our court system, the numbers of innocent people who get convicted by dubious eye-witness testimony..
A Captivating, Emotionally Intense Investigation February 23, 2009
Aung Htun (1022 1/2 Stophlet St. Fort Wayne IN 46802-4318)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
"A CAPTIVATING, EMOTIONALLY INTENSE INVESTIGATION of the complicated relationship between truth and the justice system."
- Kirkus Reviews (starred)
[from the book of back jacket]
 Truth is hard to accept August 1, 2008
JD (Florida)
9 out of 55 found this review helpful
Case of a Lifetime is the story, or fable, of a lawyer who develops deep feelings for a guilty client and because of those feelings she obsessed for more than 20 years trying to have her client exonerated. To the casual reader who is capable of using logic and reason, the subject of the book, Patsy Kelly Jarrett, comes across as likely guilty, despite her repeated claim of being innocent. To a reader with some direct insight into the murders and robberies that are part of this book, the subject, Patsy Kelly Jarrett, is definitely guilty.
The author went to great lengths to find people who would accept her version of the client's story and after 20 plus years, those people were still few and far between. What the author did not do was pursue people who would have information that contradicts the claims of innocence.
The author will use both sides of the "one witness" debate. She is against it when it contradicts her client's story, but she is in favor of it when it can be used to add credence to her client's fable. She can't have it both ways.
The book is a blend of fact and fiction. The facts the author detailing her efforts on behalf of the client. The fiction is the story that the client tells. Patsy Kelly Jarrett is a convicted murderer. That was affirmed at her trial and reaffirmed through the many appeals, clemency hearings, and parole hearings. Thankfully the American justice system worked.
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