Monday Musings: Kevin Davis, Author Of Defending The Damned

Tomorrow, April 3, Defending the Damned: Inside Chicago’s Cook County Public Defender’s Office goes on sale. It is with great pride I get to introduce the book’s author as today’s Monday Musings guest.

The book has its own category on Public Defender Stuff so you can see what has been published about it here on the blog, including links to articles and the PD Stuff review. Kevin Davis’ website is here.

I really can’t say enough about what an incredible accomplishment this book is. I planned to write more in this introduction, but I’ll let Kevin tell you about it himself…

INTRODUCTION

Hi, and thanks so much for having me as a guest on Monday Musings. I’m grateful for the opportunity to talk about my book and the story behind it. Working on Defending the Damned has been among the most fascinating, illuminating and rewarding experiences of my journalistic career.

A little about myself: I live and work in my hometown of Chicago, and come from a family of journalists. Ink, as they say, runs in our veins. My grandfather was a newspaper photographer (he shot pictures of the notorious bank robber, John Dillinger) and my Dad worked as a reporter and later became a novelist. I think we all were born to be storytellers.

My first job in journalism took me to Florida, where I worked for ten years as a reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, mostly on the crime beat. While down there, I got my hooks into a story of appalling injustice, which became the subject of my first book, The Wrong Man. The book examines the story behind the wrongful murder conviction of a mentally ill man who was coerced into confessing to a double murder.

Since moving back to Chicago, I’ve written for a variety of local and national publications while squeezing in time to work on my book. I live on the far North Side of the city with my wife, Martie Sanders, who’s an actress and performer. Despite of the serious look I have on my book jacket photo, I don’t carry such a grim expression all the time.

Defending the Damned has a double meaning: in a way the book defends the people who work in the Murder Task Force, who themselves are often damned by society. How on earth did you get involved with this, and how did you get a publisher to publish a book about these people?

I got involved in this book project because I wanted to see another side of the criminal justice system after having spent so much time covering it from the police and prosecutor’s point of view. As crime reporter, I worked very closely with police officers and detectives on my daily beat. I hung around police stations, spent time at crime scenes and inside the homes of the families of murder victims, talking with parents, spouses and children who lost someone to violent crime. I felt their rage and grief as I sat in their living rooms paging through photo albums. I understood how they came to demonize the defendants charged with killing their loved ones.

My dealings with criminal defense lawyers—public and private—were usually brief, largely limited to perfunctory calls that I’d make right before deadline. I’d get a suspect’s lawyer on the phone and ask for the other side of the story. My calls were most often answered with a no comment or obligatory declarations of a client’s innocence. Such trite responses weren’t necessarily the lawyers’ fault. They usually hadn’t seen the case files or even met their clients yet. Media coverage of crime is largely weighted on information supplied by law enforcement. Cops and prosecutors put out news releases and hold the press conferences. Public defenders generally do not.

As I moved from being a rookie reporter to a more experienced journalist, I began to report and write about cases of dishonest and corrupt cops, about wrongful convictions and I saw how the criminal justice system can fail. My first book, the Wrong Man, inspired me to dig deeper because it showed me that police and prosecutors make mistakes, that they can coerce suspects into confessing to crimes they did not commit, and that the legal system can be terribly flawed. I wanted to know more about defense lawyers. I wanted to see and understand how the other side works, especially public defenders who seemed to have the toughest cases of all. I was struck by how difficult and thankless their work was, how they are assigned to handle the most difficult and seemingly impossible cases. I wanted to know how and why they do it.

Persuading a publisher to take on such a book did not come easy. My agent circulated my book proposal for nearly a year, and I received plenty of rejection letters before landing a contract with Atria/Simon & Schuster. I was fortunate to have a persistent agent who believed in the book and kept pitching it. I was also fortunate that an editor named Wendy Walker saw potential in this book. Wendy felt that Defending the Damned had strong characters, felt authentic and told an important story. I think because it’s structured as a narrative with suspense and scenes that play out like a novel, that the publisher felt it had a chance at some broader appeal and commercial success. Who knows? I certainly didn’t do this thinking I would get rich.

How difficult was it to get such incredible access to the Murder Task Force, and why do you think they agreed to let you in?

Showing interest in what people do, and listening to what they have to say, is the key to opening those kinds of doors. As a journalist, my craft depends on my curiosity and ability to make people feel comfortable enough to talk with me. I talk to people as if we’re having regular conversations. I don’t act like I’m above them or judging them. I don’t demand they tell me things. I think I’m a good listener, and can put people at ease. Of course, not everyone I try to talk to feels that way. I’ve had plenty of “no comments” and doors slammed on me throughout my career.

Because I arrived as an outsider, I had to start knocking on doors. One day I telephoned a public defender named Shelton Green, who was supervisor of the Cook County Public Defender’s Murder Task Force. I introduced myself, told him I was interested in writing a book about public defenders and asked if he’d talk with me. I was surprised at how forthcoming and flattered he was that anyone was interested enough in their work to write a book. I met with him in person a few days later and we hit it off. I explained to Shelton that I was interested in observing the day-to-day workings of his office. Because Shelton and his colleagues knew their reputation was often unfavorable, he explained to me that they usually avoided the media and kept their stories to themselves. But he agreed to take a chance and talk with me. “People may not like us,” he told me. “But I hope they understand us.”

Green really wanted to help foster that understanding, so he allowed me full access to the Murder Task Force office. He said I could speak to whoever wanted to. I visited that office on and off for the next five years, watching, listening and asking questions. Some attorneys were busy, or didn’t care to talk, and others opened their doors and their souls in ways I had never expected. What I didn’t want was stock answers to my questions or vague general comments that were self-serving. This was going to take time. By showing up to the office, sitting in court and hanging around I developed relationships with many of these lawyers. We had lunch together, we had drinks together and all along they knew whatever they talked about was potential fodder for my book. I never betrayed any confidences or gratuitously used anything in the book that I thought would be damaging or embarrassing to anyone. I wrote about their actions, words and deeds that I felt were relevant to telling their stories.

There were a lot of public defenders, and plenty of cases, you could have chosen as the framework for the book. How did you decide to focus the story on Marijane Placek and the Aloysius Oliver case?

Early on Shelton Green recommended — actually insisted — that I meet with Marijane. He said she was one of the longest-serving members of the task force, one of the most outspoken and one of the most colorful. He certainly was correct. I remember the first time I walked into Marijane’s office, I immediately noticed a wire shoe rack in the corner. It was jammed with flats and pumps, various styles of boots and a pair of red, white and blue tennis shoes speckled with glitter. There was also a pair of snakeskin boots, and she told me that some people called her the gunslinger. I knew I was going to like her. Everyone around the courthouse knows Marijane. She has a reputation as a flamboyant, larger than life figure, as well as a sharp and skillful lawyer.

When I asked Marijane whether she’d be interested in participating in the book project, she immediately agreed. She said she’d tell me anything I wanted to know. “I have no secrets, and everything is on the record.” I rarely heard that kind of candor, and took advantage of her willingness to participate in my research. Marijane became my guide through the system, introducing me to judges, lawyers and investigators and answering my many questions. But interviews were not enough. I wanted more, and asked Marijane for permission to follow her through a single case from beginning to end. I told her that I wanted to observe the process from behind the scenes. Marijane told me that she and Assistant Pubic Defender Ruth McBeth were representing a client named Aloysius Oliver, who was accused of killing Chicago Police Officer Eric Lee on August 21, 2001.

I chose to follow that case because I believed the crime symbolized a classic battle between good and evil—a police officer who was a shining light in his community, allegedly killed by a street thug who showed no respect for the law. This would be a powerful example to show how difficult some of these public defender cases can be. More than that, the case exposed the legal and emotional complexities of representing a client who faced the death penalty. I wanted to understand how these lawyers prepared for such a possibility, what it really means to work a capital case. Marijane and Ruth graciously agreed to let me watch them work this case. And my book began to take shape.

There are some scenes in the book that will make public defenders cringe as they imagine the general public’s reaction to some of the attitudes expressed by the public defenders. How do you think public defenders will react to the behind-the-scenes nature of the book? And how have the people in the book reacted?

Some of those things made me cringe, too. But I chose to include their raw language, humor and occasional callousness and cynicism because it was so very real. All journalists make judgment calls about what they include and exclude from articles, books, documentaries, whatever their medium. Sometimes it’s a matter of taste, sometimes it’s a courtesy to a source, sometimes it’s to make a point. I wanted this book to be as real as what I was witnessing in and out of court. Otherwise, I feared I would fail. That public defenders joked about a baby killing case told me something very important about their characters and how they deal with such ugliness. If I started censoring them or let them tell me what to censor, I would feel that I’ve lost my mission. And here’s the other thing: These lawyers are not the kind of people who are afraid. They’re not concerned what other people might think. That is one of the qualities I most admired about them. They are willing to do an unpopular job and live with the consequences.

I believe they made no effort to hide their ghastly humor or profanity because they felt comfortable around me and trusted me to put it in context. You’re absolutely right that outsiders may be turned off. And outsiders may never fully understand or appreciate the value of public defenders, whether they read this book or not. I have a great respect and affection for those I wrote about, I think they felt the same. In fact, I’ve been getting notes and calls from them thanking me for telling their stories. I just talked to Woody Jordan, one of the lawyers in the book. He told me they’re having readings of my book in the Murder Task Force Office, selecting certain passages about each other and reading aloud. I asked Woody if it was safe for me to walk back into the office and he had a hearty laugh and said, “Of course!” Bob Strunck, another task force member, sent me a note telling me he thought the book was “fantastic and so damned real.” Marijane, the main character, is extremely happy. (she is the star, after all) So I feel relieved and humbled that I did them justice.

It is clear you have a deep respect for the attorneys who take on these thankless jobs. But, ultimately, you also saw the cost to many of them. How do you deal with leaving that connection behind now that the book is done, and what do you take with you from the experience?

I haven’t really left that connection behind. Many of these public defenders have become friends. I still go to the courthouse from time to time to say hello. Because I volunteer as a writing instructor at the jail, I’m at the criminal courts complex twice a month so I can see many of the people who are part of the book. I have lunch with Marijane Placek, Ruth McBeth and Julie Norman regularly.

I know this may sound corny, but it’s absolutely true: My experience during those years I spent researching my book opened my eyes to public defenders in a whole new way. Like other outsiders, before I knew any better, I bought into some of the stereotypes, had misconceptions about who they were and what role they served. I came away understanding that every time a public defender steps into a courtroom they are, in a sense, fighting on behalf of all of us – whether they win or lose. I came away admiring these people who have the guts to stand up and challenge authority every day, knowing that their profession and their efforts are often never celebrated beyond themselves. I hope that my book celebrates them as they deserve to be.

THE PD STUFF FIVE QUESTIONS

If you weren’t a journalist, what other job would you like to try and why?

I don’t look at being a journalist as a job, but more of a part of who I am and a reflection of my interest in the world around me. I’d like to try filmmaking as another profession. I love the visual medium and beauty of great films – both feature films and documentaries. There is so much I’d like to learn about new advances in digital technology, sound and animation. It’s really another form of story telling. I have a passion for the visual arts. I’d also like to be a chef. I’m fascinated with food – preparing it, smelling it, eating it and describing it.

Best moment on the job?

The day John Purvis walked into the arms of his family a free man after serving ten years for a wrongful murder conviction. Purvis was the mentally ill man who was the subject of my first book, The Wrong Man. I had covered the story as a reporter, got to know his family well, and was with them during this powerful moment at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Worst moment on the job?

Covering my first accidental shooting of a child. I was a rookie reporter in Florida and was dispatched to a house where a boy accidentally shot his friend with a .357 magnum. I arrived to see the victim being taken out on a stretcher with half his head gone and heard the chilling cries and inconsolable wails of his mother as she stood in their front yard. Five minutes later, the father pulled up after being called at work. It was among the most tragic scenes I have ever witnessed. I was haunted for a long time.

If Heaven exists, what do you think God will say to you when you arrive?

“Kev, you whip up a really tasty Panang Curry, but your Pad Thai needs a little work.”

If I’m lucky, he’ll say “Kev, thank you for giving voice to many of the voiceless on earth whose stories needed to be told. ”

If you could only pick one, who is your hero/heroine?

My Mom is my heroine. From her I learned to be a good listener, to understand people for who they are, to reserve judgment, to show compassion for my fellow human beings and to drink in life and enjoy it while we’re here.

Thank you very much, Kevin, for sharing this deeper look into the book. I really wish you all the luck in the world with it.

Next week’s guest on Monday Musings is Woman of the Law. If you have some questions you’d like me to consider for her interview, please email me.

And don’t forget: you can schedule your own Monday Musings interview by sending me an email and letting me know what date you’d like.

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