The Last Lawyer

Today is the launch date for The Last Lawyer: The Fight to Save Death Row Inmates, an inspiring new non-fiction thriller that chronicles a team of capital post-conviction attorneys in North Carolina and their decade-long fight to overturn a client’s death sentence. Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts called it "a compulsively readable indictment of a fatally flawed system. It reads like first-class legal fiction, but it's far more compelling because it is, tragically, legal fact."

I know what you're thinking: "Wow, McGaugh is all over the non-fiction book scene these days." I also know that you probably think it is because I am, myself, the author of a sizzling non-fiction book. But you would be wrong. It's all about the blog. Apparently, having a blog is the ticket to the inner world of non-fiction publishing.

But I digress . . . author John Temple spent four-and-a-half years shadowing the attorneys on the case. Millennial Law Prof sat down with him (virtually!) to learn more about the attorneys featured in the book, the intricacies of the case, and why Temple undertook a book project with an ending that was completely uncertain.

Q. Why did you decide to write this book?
A. I always thought it would be interesting to write about the lawyers behind these capital cases that we read about in the news. I was interested in finding out more about the death penalty itself, but my driving interest was to answer the question: Why would someone choose to do this kind of work, where there are seemingly so few rewards? What I found out is that it is very difficult work and that only a certain number of people are able or willing to do it for a long time, but those who do it do it both because they are ideologically driven to fight the death penalty but also because they find it to be the most fascinating area of the law.

Q. Why do you think this book would be interesting to today’s law’s students?
A. I think this is a book that will remind a lot of people about why they went to law school in the first place. Particularly law students interested in public interest law – not just criminal law or death penalty law – because it really gets to what it means to be a lawyer. These lawyers are so inspiring and also so influential in such a high-profile area of the law; the book shows how exciting this kind of work can be.

Q. Who do you find to be the most inspiring character in the book and why?
A. Ken Rose is the central figure in the book and the most inspiring to me for several reasons. First, his deep conviction in trying to help clients and second, he seems to me to always to be trying to do the right thing. That included the way he dealt with me during the course of the reporting. He’s naturally inclined to be a private person and being the subject of a book was difficult for him at times, but he never reneged on his agreement to cooperate on the book.

Q. Which character do you think law students will relate to most?
A. It depends on their personalities – there are lots of interesting characters in the book. Among the legal team, there’s Mark Kleinschmidt, who is a young, personable very ideologically driven character who struggles with his decision to work at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. There’s another woman who quit her job there at least partly as a result of this case, and her struggle is very relatable. And one of the investigators, Sara, is not an attorney, but she was inspired to do this work because of her deep religious faith and because of events that occurred in her life and struggles she faced. I’m sure some young law students will relate to each of these characters.

Q. Why do you think law professors are responding so positively to this book?
A. These attorneys are inspiring because they help people who no one else is willing to help in many instances. In addition, they’re doing work that is high profile and in the public eye, they’re changing public policy and having a major impact on people’s lives.

Q. You’re not a lawyer – you’re a journalist. How did that impact your writing of The Last Lawyer?
A. I had to learn a lot, obviously. But I went in knowing that I had a huge handicap and because of that, I asked the main characters to read the book before it was published and point out any mistakes. In some ways, it probably helped that I wasn’t a lawyer. It helped me write a book that is accessible to a wider audience. It might be harder for a lawyer to remember what general readers don’t know about the law.

To learn more about John Temple and The Last Lawyer or to order a copy, visit www.johntemplebooks.com. (The direct link on Amazon is http://bit.ly/DRl8o.)
And if you’re interested in booking John Temple to speak to your law students or to sign copies, contact him at john.temple@mail.wvu.edu.