Susan Vinocour

This was heartbreaking and enraging. The author has worked both as a lawyer and as a forensic psychologist, and her dual background makes this book possible. It's the story of both a single trial--of a black woman accused of abusing and killing her grandson--and of the insanity defense, which is widely misunderstood.

The defendant's story is one of incredible systemic failure on the part of multiple agencies. Raymie died not just because of either his grandmother's actions or an accident, but because authorities had repeatedly failed to notice or provide support for a family that was failing--generations of abuse, poverty, mental illness, and intellectual disability. He was sent to live with a grandmother who warned CPS that she was not able to take care of him because of the needs of her other children. We often hear, these days, about CPS overinvolvement in the lives of families of color. But CPS also has repeatedly failed to intervene in cases where lives were at risk, and this was one such case.

The legal system, especially since Reagan's crusade against the insanity defense following his shooting by Hinckley, has been tilted against defendants with mental illness. The public misunderstands the insanity defense, thinking it's used far more often than it is, that it lets defendants off the hook, and that a defendant may, after being declared not guilty by reason of insanity, walk out of a hospital shortly after. (I know someone who has worked in forensic psychiatric hospitals; they are not pleasant places.) Dr. Vinocour does an interesting job of explaining the history of the defense and the legal differences between knowing an action is wrong, and understanding it. The system is also tilted against poor defendants, especially those of color. The combination is the perfect storm of injustice.

The language could, in a few places, have been toned down slightly--there are a few clichés. But it's an absorbing and well written story.… (mere)