Page 10 - Sheldon Siegal News Today

thats a long-time issue. and i dont have a good answer for that attorney i am hopeful we can try in some manner to level the playing field a little more, at least so that the attorneys in my fictional world have it a little easier. but more important, you know, i have it easy. i write stories. we met the gentleman who is on death row for a long time. you hope at the very least you can avoid serious, serious mistakes. and allocating the resources to make sure those mistakes dont happy t...

mistakes. and allocating the resources to make sure those mistakes dont happy think is a very important thing. >> my view, be more activistic, have more courage, where theres manifest, protest it. everyone should choose an issue. everyone then should be behind that issue and strive for change. the first thing is identify. and then to demonstrate. and then to do actions. and maybe, you know, im old and im thinking how the 1960s sought to reform things like war and racism, and they took ...

have more courage, where theres manifest, protest it. everyone should choose an issue. everyone then should be behind that issue and strive for change. the first thing is identify. and then to demonstrate. and then to do actions. and maybe, you know, im old and im thinking how the 1960s sought to reform things like war and racism, and they took it to the streets, and they cried out loud, and they demonstrated, chanted, boycotted tax. we have to wake up! were in a slumber because life i...

self-protection. and terrorism abounds. and isnt the police force, you know, wonderful to protect us? thats all era. and what we have to do is point at what is wrong and seek in every fashion or address it within the circle of your own ability to communicate. [applause] >> my book is called "lust for justice" and the word lust imply a certain passion. i think that what is missing over the decades as i have lived is exactly what tony is saying. the dissident voice has become either sile...

you know, the system is only as good as the people who are operating within it. and its only as good as how the resources available to it can be used. and thats not an easy fix. thats a long-time issue. and i dont have a good answer for that attorney i am hopeful we can try in some manner to level the playing field a little more, at least so that the attorneys in my fictional world have it a little easier. but more important, you know, i have it easy. i write stories. we met the gentle...

and, you know, somebody said to me, i read this whole book and realized you had covered that, had done it defendantly, and then i realized you were making a point there. so i try not to beat my readers over head, but i do try to get some of that in. because i think thats important. if youre writing books about lawyers and about crime, you know, there are victims. and i do try to set the world right at the end when i possibly can. and that is, as i said earlier, the advantage of writing...

had done it defendantly, and then i realized you were making a point there. so i try not to beat my readers over head, but i do try to get some of that in. because i think thats important. if youre writing books about lawyers and about crime, you know, there are victims. and i do try to set the world right at the end when i possibly can. and that is, as i said earlier, the advantage of writing novels as opposed to trying real cases. the other point i would make -- and everybodys kind o...

its inevitable. im getting off the point a little bit here. but at some point i think it was around the time of the o.j. case where you had this confluence of a big public figure, it was a juicy trial, and cable news was just becoming a force. it changed the environment in which we operate, at least criminal system operates. because its not just cases anymore, its entertainment. its a whole media frenzy on big cases. and i dont think thats a very good thing, but that is the environment...

and lawyers have to deal with that now. >> a very good point. we have some questions from the audience. im going to ask the first one for paulette. in taking tonys essence, who he is as a trial lawyer, how does you tell that story in the book? paulettes book is for sale in the lobby and also at green arcade books here in san francisco. how did you do that? you used your art, obviously, and you used writings. but how did you tell that story? what was your hook? >> well, i am not a parti...

all the roles. so you get the full gamut of the human condition going on. i connected with tony at that visceral level. and then i went to a translation process and a sort of distilled, if you will, process of putting it into context. and i was there in many of the trials, the trials that i was present in. so it is storytelling, but its storytelling from the gut rather than from the head which i kind of call window shopping. i wasnt interested in window shopping tony. i wanted it to be...