โ Scribed by Richard North Patterson
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
When the body of nine-year old Thuy Sen is found in the San Francisco Bay, the police quickly charge Rennell and Payton Price with her grisly murder. A twelve-person jury, abetted by an incompetent defense lawyer, is nearly as quick to find the brothers guilty, and to sentence them both to die for their crimes.
Fifteen years later, overworked pro bono laywer Teresa Peralta Paget, her husband Chris, and stepson Carlo, a recent Harvard law graduate, become convinced not only that Rennell didn't receive a fair trial but that he may well be innocent. Racing against the clock and facing enormous legal obstacles, Teresa, Chris, and Carlo desperately try to stay Rennell's execution, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court, and to an enormously moving and powerful conclusion.
From the Hardcover edition.
After focusing on gun control and tort reform (in Balance of Power) and late-term abortion and Supreme Court nomination (in Protect and Defend), Patterson takes on the death penalty, exploring its uncertainties and injustices from the perspective of San Francisco lawyer Christopher Pagetโhero of the author's first book, The Lasko Tangent โand Paget's lawyer wife, Terri. The horrific crime on which the novel hinges is the killing of nine-year-old Thuy Sen, whose body is found in San Francisco Bay. The medical examiner quickly ascertains that the little girl did not drown but choked to death on semen. After Thuy Sen's picture is broadcast on television, an elderly eyewitness identifies her dope-dealer neighbors Payton and Rennell Price as the killers. This story is told in flashback after Terri Paget, who specializes in representing death row inmates, takes on the 15-year-old case, representing Rennell, who has 59 days before he is to die by lethal injection. Rennell is a hulking retarded black man whose sullen passivity inspires little sympathy in anyone. Over the next several months, Teresa comes to believe in Rennell as she fights not only to stop his execution but to prove him innocent. It's a compelling story, but Patterson's true interest is in the legal details. He mostly succeeds at explaining the often Orwellian legal complexities of the death penalty, but the price he pays as a novelist is high. Many readers will skip over vast sections of the book, but those who stick with it will find the ending moving and come away with a greater understanding of a controversial issue.
Copyright ยฉ Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Former trial lawyer Patterson, who has tackled such weighty issues as abortion (Protect and Defend , 2000) and the Second Amendment (Balance of Power , 2003), now turns his keen eye to the issue of the death penalty. Terri Peralta Paget has just taken the case of Rennell Price, who is on death row for the murder of a nine-year-old girl. Rennell and his older brother, Payton, were convicted 15 years ago of sexually abusing the girl and killing her in the process. But as Terri goes over the case and talks to the detective in charge of the initial investigation and the lawyer who handled Rennell's subsequent appeals, she starts to have doubts about Rennell's mental capacity and his guilt. Physical evidence placed the victim at the scene, and the prosecution's star witness, Eddie Fleet, named the brothers as her killer, but the same lawyer, an incompetent cokehead who mishandled their defense, represented both Rennell and Payton. As with his previous novels, Patterson examines a complex issue through the lens of a compelling, gripping story. Readers familiar with his characters (many of whom have appeared in his previous novels) and those looking for a powerful courtroom drama will not be disappointed. Kristine Huntley
Copyright ยฉ American Library Association. All rights reserved
A Novel
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