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Rating: 
Summary: A Terrible Book From A Dispicable Author
Review: I found this deeply disturbing but not very interesting. Disturbing because the author seemed proud of his role as an advocate for the most dangerous and destructive members in our society. Proud that he used technicalities, character assassination and outright falsehoods to free people who he himself knew to be dangerous. I was disinterested because the book is not a serious work about the work of an attorney for the mentally deranged but a chatty verbose blow by blow of certain trails and hearings the author participated in. The crimes of the defendants and the suffering of the victims are given very little space, while the courtroom 'dramatics' and his actions to aid the deranged are highlighted. Most disappointing, he admits to changing details of the stories to suit 'dramatic effect'' given this, what is the point?
Rating: 
Summary: Riveting, Engrossing; I Couldn't Put It Down!
Review: I've just finished reading Denis Woychuk's book, Attorney For The Damned, and I must warn you, make sure you have plenty of free time on your hands before you start reading this book, because once you start, you won't be able to stop. We Americans like to think that we have a good system of criminal justice, but this book shows how frightfully easy it is for innocent people to be locked away in mental hospitals because of a few simple misunderstandings. (For example, the patient says, "Doc, I was railroaded in here", and the psychiatrist writes, "Patient has delusions of arriving here by train.") The book also shows how horrifyingly easy it is for incredibly dangerous criminals to be set free because of careless mistakes. (A man who had committed two rapes and two murders, and was still considered extremely dangerous, was set free because a prosecutor forgot to show up for a hearing!) The book also raises troubling questions about how we make the distinction between religious beliefs and psychotic delusions, how some newspapers sensationalize stories about mentally ill people who commit ghastly crimes, and the terrible burden that our adversarial system of justice places on idealistic lawyers who want to do what's best for society, but are required to represent the wishes of the client. In the final chapter, Woychuk offers some statistics and opinions, and gives us hope that perhaps we will eventually succeed in finding better ways to deal with violent criminals. For further reading, I would recommend The Defense Never Rests, by F. Lee Bailey, and The Crime of Punishment, by Karl Menninger.
Rating: 
Summary: An Interesting Look at an Unusual Side of Criminal Justice
Review: This book is an interesting look at a side of the "criminal justice" system that is rarely, if ever, examined from the point of view of this book. There are a number of books regarding the criminally insane written by doctors,and by "true crime" writers but this is the first I have ever seen written by, and from the perspective of an attorney.The writing is well done, and the book is easy to read. It isn't written in legalese so that anyone can read it and enjoy it. The author did a wonderful job of presenting a variety of cases and was not shy about his hesitancy to deal with certain of those cases. He also provided some interesting insights into the problems faced by the "criminally insane", the attorneys who represent them and the system and offered a number of solutions to these problems. This is a book well worth reading, particularly if you are interested in mental health or criminal justice.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Look at an Unusual Side of Criminal Justice
Review: This book is an interesting look at a side of the "criminal justice" system that is rarely, if ever, examined from the point of view of this book. There are a number of books regarding the criminally insane written by doctors,and by "true crime" writers but this is the first I have ever seen written by, and from the perspective of an attorney. The writing is well done, and the book is easy to read. It isn't written in legalese so that anyone can read it and enjoy it. The author did a wonderful job of presenting a variety of cases and was not shy about his hesitancy to deal with certain of those cases. He also provided some interesting insights into the problems faced by the "criminally insane", the attorneys who represent them and the system and offered a number of solutions to these problems. This is a book well worth reading, particularly if you are interested in mental health or criminal justice.
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