Witness For The Defense

"The study of memory had become my specialty, my passion. In the next few years I wrote dozens of papers about how memory works and how it fails, but unlike most researchers studying memory, my work kept reaching out into the real world. To what extent, I wondered, could a person's memory be shaped by suggestion? When people witness a serious automobile accident, how accurate is their recollection of the facts? If a witness is questioned by a police officer, will the manner of questioning alter the representation of the memory? Can memories be supplemented with additional, false information?" The "passion" Loftus describes in the lines above led her to a teaching career at the University of Washington and, perhaps more importantly, into hundreds of courtrooms as an expert witness on the fallibility of eyewitness accounts. As she has explained in numerous trials, and as she convincingly argues in this absorbing book, eyewitness accounts can be and often are so distorted that they no longer resemble the truth.

After a lifetime devoted to the law, a San Francisco attorney's life is torn apart when he is accused of coercing testimony from witnesses. His only hope is a beautiful lawyer whose ex-judge father holds a grudge against him. But for her help, he must agree to represent her father's handyman who stands accused of kidnapping. With the life of an innocent man as well as his own in the balance, the attorney will come face-to-face with a twisted murderer--one whom he may be powerless to stop.

In this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller, after taking on a foreclosure case, defense attorney Mickey Haller fights to prove his client’s innocence—but first he must follow a trail of black market evidence to its sinister end. Mickey Haller has fallen on tough times. He expands his business into foreclosure defense, only to see one of his clients accused of killing the banker she blames for trying to take away her home. Mickey puts his team into high gear to exonerate Lisa Trammel, even though the evidence and his own suspicions tell him his client is guilty. Soon after he learns that the victim had black market dealings of his own, Haller is assaulted, too -- and he's certain he's on the right trail. Despite the danger and uncertainty, Haller mounts the best defense of his career in a trial where the last surprise comes after the verdict is in. Connelly proves again why he "may very well be the best novelist working in the United States today" (San Francisco Chronicle).

A British barrister takes the witness stand after becoming embroiled in a shocking murder in colonial India Unassured of a family inheritance, Henry Thresk dedicates himself to pursuing a career in law. His determination is exacting; as a man of limited means, it has to be. Even when he meets Stella, a supremely appealing young woman, he refuses to consider love and marriage. He must stick to the path he has laid out for himself. Eight years later, on a solicitor call to Bombay, Henry finds himself face to face with a photograph of his long-lost love. Stella is married to Captain Ballantyne, an older man clever at politics and languages who is revealed to be a violent brute. Henry is determined to rescue Stella, but before he can enact a plan the captain is discovered shot to death with his wife’s rifle. Henry, a respected man of the law, is called as a witness for the defense—only the first of many twists in this deftly plotted mystery. If his instincts are wrong, he will sacrifice his life and career for a woman he hardly knows. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

A professional behavioral witness to more than a hundred capital trials explores the making of a murderer. CSI shows us where a crime is committed. Forensic detectives show us how. But what really goes on in the mind of killer? What is it in each potential victim that sparks in them the urge to take a life? What are the reasons behind a quick thrill kill, or slow torture? Between choosing someone they know, or a stranger? As they stand before a jury, after reams of graphic evidence, the question is no longer whether or not they committed the unthinkable. The question posed to Wanda Draper, expert in behavioral science and child development, and key witness in more than a hundred high-profile trials, is why? The answer is all that stands between a sentence of life in prison or death row. In this unique true-crime investigation, Draper shares some of the darkest cases of her career. She sheds light on the personal circumstances and critical life events that perverted childhoods and brought convicted murderers to trial. She reveals how the past casts a grave shadow over one’s future. And in doing so, explores one irrefutable fact: killers aren’t born, they’re made.

A prominent judge is dead, a sixteen-year-old girl is accused, and her distraught mother turns to her old college roommate, Josie Bates, for help. Brilliant but flawed, Josie left the legal fast track behind after her talent in a courtroom brought a tragic result. But when Hannah is charged as an adult, Josie cannot turn her back. The deeper she digs, the more Josie realizes that politics, the law and family relationships create a combustible and dangerous situation. When the horrible truth is uncovered it can save Hannah Sheraton or destroy them both.