ISBN: 9780814784563
Editorial: New
Autor: Wesson, Marianne
Año de edición: 2013
N° Páginas: 405
Tipo de pasta: Pasta dura
Descripción: Biografía del autor Marianne Wesson is Professor of Law and President's Teaching Scholar, University of Colorado Law School. She is the author of best-selling and prize-winning legal novels including Render up the Body, A Suggestion of Death, and Chilling Effect. She lives in a Colorado mountain valley with her husband, llamas, dogs, and visiting wildlife. This is anextraordinary and ground-breaking book, a wonderfully creative mix of fact andtheory, imagination and drama. Anyone with an interest in law, history, or, forthat matter, great storytelling will fall in love with A Death at Crooked Creek. The startling origin of the complex'intention exception' to the hearsay evidence rule becomes canvas on which agrand and marvelously detailed tale is told. This is modern narrative at itsbest: a marriage of spectacular writing and hard, documented truth presented bya brilliant author who doubles as a gifted and fastidious legal scholar andhistorian. --Andrew Popper, American University One winter night in1879, at a lonely Kansas campsite near Crooked Creek, a man was shot to death.The dead man's traveling companion identified him as John Hillmon, a cowboyfrom Lawrence who had been attempting to carve out a life on the blusteryprairie. The case might have been soon forgotten and the apparent widow, SallieHillmon, left to mourn--except for the $25,000 life insurance policies Hillmonhad taken out shortly before his departure. The insurance companies refused topay on the policies, claiming that the dead man was not John Hillmon, andSallie was forced to take them to court in a case that would reach the SupremeCourt twice. The companies' case rested on a crucial piece of evidence: a fadedlove letter written by a disappeared cigarmaker, declaring his intent to travelwestward with a "man named Hillmon." In A Death atCrooked Creek, Marianne Wesson re-examines the long-neglected evidence inthe case of the Kansas cowboy and his wife, recreating the court scenes thatled to a significant Supreme Court ruling on the admissibility of hearsayevidence. Wesson employs modern forensic methods to examine the body of thedead man, attempting to determine his true identity and finally put thisfascinating mystery to rest. This engaging andvividly imagined work combines the drama, intrigue, and emotion of excellentstorytelling with cutting-edge forensic investigation techniques and legaltheory. Wesson's superbly imagined A Death at Crooked Creek willhave general readers, history buffs, and legal scholars alike wondering whetherhistory, and the Justices, may have misunderstood altogether the events at thatbleak winter campsite. Críticas [A] riveting historical investigation of murder, insurance fraud, and a Supreme Court ruling.-- "Library Journal"Known for her legal thrillers, University of Colorado law professor Wesson (Chilling Effect) employs her expertise to great effect in this exhaustive study of famous crime that left its mark on the American legal system...Wesson's efforts result in a true crime drama that's well researched, easy to read, and oddly compelling.-- "Publishers Weekly"Marianne Wesson brings empathy, imagination, and dedication to detail to this creative reinvestigation of a landmark Supreme Court decision. Meticulously researched, A Death at Crooked Creek reads like the best kind of historical novel and reminds us that behind every famous court case were the lives of real people and families.--Alafair Burke, author of Long GoneThe 'whodunit' lives in law professor Marianne Wesson's A Death at Crooked Creek. Her book tells the story of one of the most intriguing mysteries in American legal history: who was shot and killed at Crooked Creek, Kan., on a late winter's day in 1879? For evidence teachers, and possibly even law students slogging their way through hearsay and its exceptions, Mutual Life Ins. v. Hillmon, 145 U.S. 285 (1892), is a classic 19th-century mystery story....A Death at C
- Idioma: Inglés
- Autor: Wesson, Marianne
- Editorial: New
- N° Paginas: 405
- Tipo de pasta: Pasta dura
- Envío: Desde EE.UU.
