Item Condition: Used; Very Good
ACKNOWLED GMENTS
I was a lawyer once, and represented people charged with all sorts of
crimes. Fortunately, I never had a client convicted of capital murder and
sentenced to death. I never had to go to death row, never had to do the
things the lawyers do in this story.
Since I despise research, I did whatI normally do when writing a
novel. I found lawyers with expertise, and I befriended them. I called
them at all hours and picked their brains. And it is here that I thank
them.
Leonard Vincent has been the attorney for the Mississippi Departmnent
of Corrections for many years, and he opened his ofice to me. He
helped me with the law, showed me his files, took me to death row, and
toured me around the vast state penitentiary known simply as Parchman.
He told me many stories that somehow found their way into this one.
Leonard and I are still struggling with the moral perplexities of the death
penalty, and I suspect we always will. Thanks also to his staff, and to the
guards and personnel at Parchman.
Jim Craig is a man of great compassion and a fine lawyer. As the
Executive Director of the Misissippi Capital Defense Resource Center,
he's the official attorney for most of the inmates on death row. He
deftly steered me through the impenetrable maze of postcoviction
appeals and habeas corpus warfare. The inevitable mistakes are mine, not
his
I went to Law school with Tom Freeland and Guy Gillespie, and I
thank them for their ready assistance, Marc Smirnoff is a friend and the
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