Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Anatomy of a False Confession: The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey (Rowman & Littlefield, Nov. 2018)

Photo by Rebecca Slye
I am pleased to announce that I have just reached an agreement with Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., to publish my new book Anatomy of a False Confession: The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey.  The book is dedicated exclusively to Dassey's case.  It takes the reader inside the interrogation room and exposes all of the tactics, ploys, and tricks used by Wiegert and Fassbender (and O'Neill, Baldwin, and even O'Kelly) to get Dassey to talk and eventually "confess" to party-to-the-crime of murder.  The book also explains how the prosecutors overcame serious flaws in the state's case to win a conviction, how in two short paragraphs the Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed the state's victory, and how the bizarre AEDPA standard in federal court has (thus far) served to preserve Dassey's conviction based solely on a coerced and obviously false confession.  The book is both educational and entertaining -- in a darkly ironic sort of way.  (But isn't that the best way?)  We expect publication this November.  Stay tuned to The Legal Watchdog for more updates and possibly a sneak peek of some of the book.

2 comments:

  1. Hope you go in depth on the evils of the AEDPA. What a wicked piece of legislation ( with judicial approval ) that is. Bill Clintons wicked masterstroke. So many wrongfully convicted people can recieve no meaningful appellate review anymore.Its all just so much constitutional toilet paper.

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  2. Absolutely. While I don't go into the history of the AEDPA, I do discuss it and its application at length in two or three chapters. Good call.

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