Attorney for the Damned: A Lawyer's Life with the Criminally Insane

New York City attorney Woychuk offers six intriguing case studies--albeit with some composite characters and fictional dialogue--to illuminate the way the court system deals with the criminally insane. In one case, an illegal Sudanese immigrant, 18, arrested in a trifling dispute, was deemed psychotic after he betrayed his terror at being sent to jail; Woychuck secured his release. His other clients were guilty. One was a sexual murderer who, after 20 years of treatment, not only earned a release but also married a fellow murderer. Another was a drug-abusing child molester who, released after his victim killed himself, soon committed murder, leaving Woychuk feeling like ``an instrument in another senseless death.'' The author's conclusions are born of experience: eliminate the insanity defense, because the public thinks it a scam; but do sentence certain convicts to psychiatric treatment and recognize that such treatment is harsher than incarceration. But the roots of the problem are deep: nearly all his clients, Woychuk writes, were abused as children. (Feb.)