... books about law and the criminal justice system that aren't just assigned in class.
I recently read the book “The Fact of a Body: A Murder and A Memoir” written by Alexandria Marzano – Lesnevich. The New York Times called it a read that is “complex and challenging… push[ing] the boundaries of writing about trauma”. I tend to agree with moth The New York Times and Vogue, which called this book a “true crime masterpiece”. You can read a summary of the book here.
For those of you who skipped looking at the summary (shame on you) I’ll summarize briefly here. The author begins a summer internship at a law firm that specializes in reviewing and attempting to reverse death penalty convictions. She took the job thinking she was whole heartedly against the death penalty, but when she is confronted with Ricky Langley’s case, she is forced to come to terms with a new reality … that what she thought she believed in may not be what she believes in at all. The author weaves the tale of Ricky Langley’s case between descriptions of her childhood, paralleling experiences as she is confronted with her past in a way she never thought possible from a summer job.
This book challenged my perspectives on the death penalty, past trauma and how the stories of others intimately challenges us. The book caused me to think deeply not only about my beliefs, but WHY I believe the way that I do. I think this second point is something everyone should take into deep consideration. Not only asking yourself to state your opinion but be able to articulate why you have this opinion and what it means to you. Alexandria Marzano – Lesnevich becomes intimately vulnerable with the reader, walking through past pain, struggling with changing opinions and lets the reader into her heart and mind as she narrates the story, her story. Her personal story convicted me and challenged me to confront past experiences I hadn’t healed and also allowed me to understand my own experiences from this past summer when I interned with the Sioux Falls Public Defender’s office. Although none of my experiences were as personal or as serious, there were still times where I would feel the effect of second hand trauma from hearing the stories of the victims, police and the accused. All of them had a story to offer, a perspective to share and a heartfelt plea to be heard, listened to and believed. To say that hearing others stories doesn’t have an effect on the listener is a gross understatement of the human empathy.
Reading this book allowed me to understand things in a way more personal light than most of the readings I have done for class have. Reading inspires learning, and as a lawyer we have a task to be life long learners in the pursuit of justice, fairness and equality. We have the choice to let ourselves stay stagnant or to keep vibrant knowledge to help ourselves advance our ability to help our clients. Pick up a copy of this book and start reading it… you can buy it by clicking the link, here.
