Deliberate Intent: A Lawyer Tells the True Story of Murder by the Book
by Rodney A. Smolla
Our Price: $49.98
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Rodney A. SmollaEdition: Hardcover
Published: 1999-06-22
ISBN: 0609604139
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Crown
Book Reviews of Deliberate Intent: A Lawyer Tells the True Story of Murder by the Book
Book Review: Excellent On1st Amendment, and Real Murder!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is about as perfect as you can get! Mainly a true story of a lawsuit against Paladin Press for publishing the book HIT MAN, it is a very entertaining read for such a gruesome subject. Sweeping through law school discussions, 1st Amendment history, and the details of the US Court System, this is a real page turner. The details of the lawsuit, the personalities, the judges, including one whose elderly father was murdered in his own driveway just a few years before this case started, are all fascinating! So for a tour through the law and the truly horrific murders of 3 completely innocent people, and even the streets of LA and Motown records, and much more, this one is tough to beat!
Summary of Deliberate Intent: A Lawyer Tells the True Story of Murder by the Book
Deliberate Intent is a book about a lawsuit about a book about murder. The latter book, Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors, is precisely what it claims to be: a step-by-step DIY guide to freelance assassination. Few people read Hit Man; even fewer took it seriously. Ex-con James Perry did both, and when Lawrence Horn hired the felonious entrepreneur to do a little job for him, Perry followed the book's instructions to the letter, executing his client's ex-wife and brain-damaged son along with the boy's nurse. After the murderous co-conspirators were convicted and sent to prison, the families of the victims filed a wrongful-death suit against the book's publisher for aiding and abetting triple homicide.Authored by a member of the plaintiffs' team of lawyers, Deliberate Intent is an atypical nonfiction legal thriller. Rod Smolla has not reconstructed his role in Rice v. Paladin Enterprises, Inc. to spotlight his valiant determination and legal genius; instead, he offers uncommonly candid insight into his struggle to reconcile the First Amendment's protection of free speech with the sixth commandment's proscription against murder. A respected scholar of constitutional law, Smolla was understandably reluctant to take on a case with potentially damaging consequences for the Bill of Rights--and willingly admits there were times when he questioned if he was on the right side of the fight. Words don't kill people, after all; assassins kill people. Literacy is hardly a prerequisite. Eventually, however, Smolla decides, "A publisher who provides detailed information on techniques of violent crime with the deliberate intent that some readers will use the information to murder and maim will not find refuge in the First Amendment." (In May 1999, just before the case was to go to jury trial, Paladin reached an out-of-court agreement with the victims' families. As part of the settlement, Paladin withdrew Hit Man from the market.) --Tim Hogan
Deliberate Intent is the riveting account of the landmark Hit Man case, by noted First Amendment attorney Rod Smolla, who risked reputation and career when he took on a cause that seemed to oppose his strongest beliefs.
Early in 1992, Lawrence Horn hired a contract killer to execute his ex-wife and his severely brain-damaged son. On March 3, 1992, the man he hired, James Perry, traveled to Silver Spring, Maryland, and murdered Horn's ex-wife and child and the boy's nurse. Perry used a book called Hit Man as an instruction manual for the murders. The subsequent criminal trial became known as the Hit Man case, and after Horn and Perry were convicted of murder, the victims' families surprised the nation by filing an unprecedented wrongful death suit against Paladin Press, publisher of Hit Man. In a controversial turn of events, Paladin was being blamed for the murders.
Distinguished attorney Rod Smolla, First Amendment expert and vigorous advocate of free speech, was approached to represent the victims' families in the civil suit against Paladin. Smolla initially declined, but after reading Hit Man and likening it to "a loaded pistol or a vial of poison," he decided to take on the case, even though it seemed to go against his abiding belief in the First Amendment. Smolla argued that if Paladin Press knew and intended that its murder manual Hit Man would be used in the actual planning and execution of contract killings, Paladin was not entitled to immunity under the First Amendment. In an appeal that stunned the legal world, Smolla's argument prevailed and was affirmed by the Supreme Court. Deliberate Intent is the dramatic story of the events behind this landmark case--a story that includes murder, trials, and appeals and, most important, raises fascinating and difficult questions about our most cherished freedom.
Legal Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Legal Books
The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in Americaby Jeffrey Rosen
Random House; Published: 2000-05-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.13
Price in other shops:
Contempt: How the Right Is Wronging American Justiceby Catherine Crier
Rugged Land; Published: 2005-09-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops:
Damagesby Barry Werth
Simon & Schuster; Published: 1998-02-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.90
Price in other shops:
The Trouble with Principleby Stanley Fish
Harvard University Press; Published: 2001-03-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops:
No Contest: Corporate Lawyers and the Perversion of Justice in Americaby Ralph Nader, Wesley J. Smith
Random House; Published: 1998-12-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops:
Under Investigation: The Inside Story of the Florida Attorney General's Investigation of Wilhelmina Scouting Network, the Largest Model and Talent Scam in Americaby Les Henderson
Coyote Ridge Publishing; Published: 2006-09-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.65
Price in other shops:
Outrage: The Five Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Got Away With Murderby Vincent Bugliosi
Island Books; Published: 1997-03-10; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.99
The Success of Open Sourceby Steven Weber
Harvard University Press; Published: 2005-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.96
Price in other shops:
Devil's Knot : The True Story of the West Memphis Threeby Mara Leveritt
Atria; Published: 2002-10-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.95
Price in other shops:
Justice: Crimes, Trials, and Punishmentsby Dominick Dunne
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2002-05-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
A Civil Actionby Jonathan Harr
Vintage; Published: 1996-08-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops:
Gideon's Trumpetby Anthony Lewis
Vintage; Published: 1989-04-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.09
Price in other shops:
Black's Law Dictionary, Eighth Edition (Black's Law Dictionary (Standard Edition))Thomson West; Published: 2004-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $42.99
Price in other shops:
Law School Confidential (Revised Edition): A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience: By Students, for Studentsby Robert H. Miller
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2004-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.59
Price in other shops:
The Nature Of The Judicial Process (1921)by Benjamin N. Cardozo
Kessinger Publishing, LLC; Published: 2007-11-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.78
Price in other shops:
The Buffalo Creek Disaster: How the survivors of one of the worst disasters in coal-mining history brought suit against the coal company--and wonby Gerald M. Stern
Vintage; Published: 1977-02-12; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.98
One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law Schoolby Scott Turow
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 1997-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.09
Price in other shops: