Full Description
With experience as both a trial and appellate judge, Charles Benjamin Schudson knows the burdens on judges. With engaging candor, he takes readers behind the bench to probe judicial minds analyzing actual trials and sentencings—of abortion protesters, murderers, sex predators, white supremacists, and others. He takes us into chambers to hear judges forging appellate decisions about life and death, multimillion-dollar damages, and priceless civil rights. And, most significantly, he exposes the financial, political, personal, and professional pressures that threaten judicial ethics and independence.
As political attacks on judges increase, Schudson calls for reforms to protect judicial independence and for vigilance to ensure justice for all. Independence Corrupted is invaluable for students and scholars, lawyers and judges, and all citizens concerned about the future of America's courts.
Contents
Preface: Sacred Words/Crossover Time
Introduction: Independence and Corruption
Part One. Judges
1 Who's the Judge?
2 Where Judges Are Born: The Prosecutor's Perspective—from Battered Homes to Nursing Homes
3 The Decision-Making Ideal
Part Two. In Chambers: How America's Judges Really Make Their Decisions
4 The Trial Judge: Birth, Aborted
State v. Monica Migliorino Miller
5 The Appellate Judge: Birth, Premature
Peterman v. Midwestern National Insurance Company, Special Products, Inc., Frank A. Busalacchi, and Visuals Plus, Inc.
6 Standard of Review: Humility, and the Division of Labor
7 The Trial Judge: Life, and a Lost Teenager
In the Interest of S.W., a child under eighteen years of age
8 The Appellate Judge: Life, and a Sex Predator
State v. Shawn Schulpius
9 The Trial Judge: Death, and a Cherished Child
State v. Anthony McClain
10 The Appellate Judge: Death, and Three Widows
Wischer v. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of America, Inc.
11 The Trial Judge: Religion, and White Supremacists
State v. Hollin Lange and Patrick O'Malley
12 The Appellate Judge: Politics, "On the Point"
State v. L. C. Clay
13 Indigestion (and Other Determinants)
Part Three. America's Judiciary in the New Age of Vanishing Independence
14 Judicial Campaigns: Declarations and Contributions
15 Begging the Question: Elective or Appointive
Afterword
Fathers and Grandfathers
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
