Crime & Law Enforcement

Writer and former prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin talks to Terry about new revelations related to the O.J. Simpson criminal trial, which ended last October. Simpson now faces a civil trial. Toobin says O.J. failed a lie detector test and was told what the verdict was before it was announced. Toobin's new book is "The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson."

McKenna has just written "Manhattan North Homicide: The True Story of One of New York's Best Homicide Cops." In his 30 years with the NYPD, he's worked on some of the cities most infamous cases and he describes them in the book: The Central Park Jogger Case, The Preppie Murder Case, The Brooklyn Bridge Shootings, and The Baby Maldonado Case. McKenna worked his way up as a uniformed patrolman to detective first grade to Manhattan North homicide--an elite force within the NYPD.

Vilar's memoir "A Message from God in the Atomic Age" chronicles three generations of self-destructive behavior: in 1954, her grandmother was imprisoned for opening fire at the U.S. House of Representatives; in 1977, her mother leapt to her death from a speeding car; and in 1988, Vilar herself was committed to a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide. Alternating between her notes from the psychiatric ward and the chronicling of the history of her family, Vilar tells of her own attempts to come to terms with her family history.

Washington Post investigative reporter Jim McGee has co-written with Brian Duffy the new book "Main Justice: The Men And Women Who Enforce The Nation's Criminal Laws And Guard Its Liberties." It's about the changing role of the U.S. Justice Department. As the fears of terrorism increase, Congress and the White House are giving the Justice Department more investigative powers and a wider jurisdiction which include sanctions in foreign countries.

Advocate of children's and women's rights, Sarah Buel. Nineteen years ago she struggled to put her life together after leaving an abusive marriage. After a short time on welfare, Buel began working full-time and taking undergraduate classes. In 1990, she graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School. Buel is the co-founder of the Massachusetts Domestic Violence Council and currently serves as juvenile prosecutor for the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office in Quincy, MA. She believes the entire community must take responsibility for domestic violence.

John Douglas, author and former FBI unit chief who originated the Unabomber profile talks about the 18-year manhunt for the Unabomber suspect. Douglas has published a new book, "Unabomber: on the trail of America's most wanted serial killer" (Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster). His previous book is, "Mindhunter", a report on the criminal profiling program of the FBI's behavioral science unit.

Defense attorney Robert L. Shapiro. He put together the defense strategy and the team of high-profile attorneys who successfully defended O.J. Simpson. Eventually Shapiro was replaced by Johnny Cochran as lead attorney. And by the trial's end the team members were denouncing each other. Shapiro has written his memoir, "The Search for Justice: A Defense Attorney's Brief on the O.J. Simpson Case," (Time Warner, written with Larkin Warren).

Amherst College professor Austin Sarat, a Ph.D. in political science with a law degree from Yale University, is teaching a course on Murder which is the most popular in the school's history--with one fifth of the entire student body enrolled. It breaks the record of a course on Human Sexuality offered in the 70's. The syllabus includes selections from literature, film, and television like "Crime and Punishment," and "Macbeth," as well as "Pulp Fiction," and "Psycho." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Judge Harold J. Rothwax, author of "Guilty, The Collapse of Criminal Justice," (Random House). For twenty-five years he's been a judge on the New York State Supreme Court and has developed a reputation for tough rulings. He'll talk with Terry about his ideas for reform of the criminal justice system.

On November 11, 1994, Eddie Polec was clubbed to death in a Philadelphia suburb by a group of rival high school kids. He was clubbed with a baseball bat on the steps of the St Cecilia's Church where he had been an altar boy. Investigators say he was beaten until limp and then held aloft "to give the bat-wielding youths a better shot." He had been waiting for his young brother, to walk home together when the group of kids arrived, looking for a fight. Eddie hadn't been part of the rivalry. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.