A capital defense lawyer who writes
A capital defense lawyer who writes
A new Chopin waltz discovered, and showing up for the Veep
I worked with Philadelphia-based writer and death penalty lawyer Marc Bookman in my previous incarnation as CEO of a social justice philanthropy.
America is an extreme outlier in having a death penalty and in continuing to execute people. Our death penalty is racist at every level, from charging, to the race of the victim, to jury selection, and beyond. Innocent people are charged with death and put to death. This harshest of sentences is unfairly applied in a host of other ways, including the randomness of the county and state in which you happen to be born.
Bookman has devoted his life to representing death eligible defendants and to abolishing the death penalty. Having someone’s life in your hands is the hardest job out there. In addition to being a superb lawyer, Bookman is a wonderful writer. I interviewed him for the LA Review of Books a few years ago, about his book of essays, A DESCENDING SPIRAL. It’s an excellent collection.
Here’s our recent email exchange.
Tell us about what you do.
Everything I do requires one common quality – a deep and abiding feeling that no human being deserves to be executed, and that human beings should not be deciding whether other human beings should live or die. I became a lawyer working against the death penalty in 1993. In 2010 I founded the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation. My work varies between direct representation of those facing possible execution, consultation with teams representing clients in various state and federal courts with particular focus on Pennsylvania, testimony as an expert witness, and training defense teams.
Tell us about your writing.
Just out of college, I struggled to decide whether to pursue writing or law as a career. I ultimately decided that I could be a lawyer who wrote, but I couldn’t be a writer who practiced law. Thus, while death penalty work is all-consuming, I have always found time to write. For years I wrote short stories [many of these have been published in magazines]. Later I turned to writing essays about criminal justice. Some of those essays were compiled in my book, A DESCENDING SPIRAL: EXPOSING THE DEATH PENALTY IN TWELVE ESSAYS. Lately I’ve gone back to fiction, and we’ll see how that goes.
What sustains you in your work?
The work can be, and often is, painful and disappointing. But knowing you are on the right side of history gives you strength and energy to keep going when it might be easier to throw your hands up and quit. And, of course, clients are counting on you to endure, because if they can endure, surely you can.
If you’d like to learn more about the death penalty, here are two excellent sites [please get in touch with me if you’d like more information or reading recs]:
Equal Justice Initiative, founded by Bryan Stephenson whose JUST MERCY is a must read.
On a lighter note, it’s not every day that a new Chopin waltz is discovered. You can listen at that link, with Lang Lang playing it. “It was a pockmarked musical scrap the size of an index card...” said Robinson McClellan, the curator at New York’s Morgan Library who discovered it. You’ll know it’s Chopin with its modulating harmonies, cascading right hand chords, dynamic contrasts, and just—well—the Chopin-ness of it. (It’s in A Minor, and he likely wrote it in his 20s.) Astonishing.
In case you can’t access the recording, here’s Lang Lang playing a more familiar Chopin waltz. He’s a joy to listen to; I hope you love it.
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Thank you!
Love,
Martha
P.S. ICYMI, here’s last week’s newsletter, When a writer learns to draw.