JUST RELEASED
Summer 2018
A compelling read — the extraordinary life story of Fay Stender, whom I
vividly recall as a brilliant, charismatic woman lawyer at the forefront of
radical politics in the Seventies. Once again, Lise Pearlman has done a
masterful job capturing this tumultuous and instructive time.
- Barry Scheck, Co-Director
The Innocence Project
CALL ME PHAEDRA
The Life and Times of Movement Lawyer Fay Stender [Regent Press 2018]
Readers are treated to an inside view of the circle of Bay Area activists who boldly challenged the status quo to push
for "liberty and justice for all" during:
* The McCarthy Era * Free Speech Era * The Rise of Black Power
* The Civil Rights Movement * Vietnam War * Women's Movement
Fay Stender's extraordinary life intertwined with legendary activists JESSICA MITFORD (who called Stender her "frenemy"), MARIO SAVIO, CESAR CHAVEZ, Berkeley Barb publisher MAX SCHERR, and Yippie anti-war activist JERRY RUBIN, among others. She heard that Oakland police used her picture for target practice when she represented
Black Panther leader HUEY NEWTON on charges he murdered a beat cop. Prison officials nicknamed her "the dragon lady" for acting as the mouthpiece for death row inmate GEORGE JACKSON and other maximum security prisoners.
Fay's life would end in tragedy like the ancient Greek Queen Phaedra. She saw the irony and told close friends,
"call me Phaedra."
- REGENT PRESS
Anyone interested in history,
courtroom drama or criminal justice
should read this!
- Barry Scheck, Co-Director
The Innocence Project
WITH JUSTICE FOR SOME
Politically Charged Criminal Trials In the Early 20th Century That Helped Shape Today's America
[Regent Press 2017]
Armed with a razor-sharp legal mind and imbued with a sense of fairness for all, retired Judge Lise Pearlman examines a dozen landmark trials in U.S. history in WITH JUSTICE FOR SOME.
At the same time, the author paints a searing portrait of a society divided by class, caste, race and creed. Many, but not all, of the leading historical figures in this book, including SACCO and VANZETTI and “THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS,”
are members of minority groups and people of color. With a keen sense of balance, the author also exhumes the trials, and explores the tribulations of millionaire HARRY K. THAW, pro-Nazi celebrity CHARLES LINDBERG and the legendary gamblers who fixed the 1919 WORLD SERIES.
WITH JUSTICE FOR SOME ought to be read, enjoyed, studied and heralded by lawyers, judges, defendants and fans of legendary lawyers such as CLARENCE DARROW and BILL KUNSTLER, among others, who are troubled by the disturbing alliance today between big media and the courts that has deprived citizens of their right to a fair trial.
-JONAH RASKIN author of A TERRIBLE BEAUTY: THE WILDERNESS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE
NON-FICTION 2017 MUST READ
- ContempoBook blog -
The definitive book on the Newton trial.
- D. Lowell Jensen,
Newton Prosecutor
AMERICAN JUSTICE ON TRIAL:
People v. Newton [Regent Press 2016]
On the 50th anniversary of the Black Panther Party, Pearlman’s new book AMERICAN JUSTICE ON TRIAL: PEOPLE V. NEWTON compares the explosive state of American race relations in 1968 to race relations today with insights from key participants and observers of the internationally-watched Oakland, California death-penalty trial that launched the Black Panther Party and transformed the American jury “of one’s peers” to the diverse cross-section we often take for granted today.
The book includes comments from Newton prosecutor LOWELL JENSEN, pioneering black jury foreman DAVID HARPER and TV journalist BELVA DAVIS, as well as from Huey Newton’s older brother MELVIN NEWTON, former Panthers KATHLEEN CLEAVER, DAVID HILLIARD and EMORY DOUGLAS. It also includes comments from civil rights experts including BRYAN STEVENSON, BARRY SCHECK and JOHN BURRIS.
This book complements the nonprofit documentary project of the same name for which Pearlman is co-producer on behalf of Arc of Justice Productions, Inc.
2017 FINALIST: US HISTORY
This thorough text stands apart ... It deserves a place on the shelf of anyone interested in legal studies, the radical social movements of the 1960s, or African-American studies.
- Alyssa Vincent, The Library Journal, Vol. 137, Issue 3, p.116
...a fascinating look at this very important case of the twentieth century.
- James A Cox, Editor-in-Chief, Midwest Book Review
THE SKY'S THE LIMIT: PEOPLE v. NEWTON
The REAL Trial of the 20th Century? [Regent Press 2012]
[A history of the American 20th Century that compares the Newton trial to other headline trials of the century between the years 1901 and 2000.]
Anyone fascinated by true crime and legal thrillers will want to read The Sky’s The Limit: People v. Newton, The Real Trial of the 20th Century? In comparing the 1968 trial of Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton to other riveting American trials from 1901 to 1999, author Lise Pearlman revisits historic legal battles featuring murder, rape and kidnapping, skeletons in celebrity closets, class warfare, fixing the World Series, evolution versus creationism, abuse of power and political conspiracy. Each “trial of the century” serves as a window into its own era, but the author asserts that the Newton murder trial following a shootout with two Oakland policemen—where the accused revolutionary put America itself on trial for 400 years of racism—should head the list. The author contends that the jury’s surprising verdict still reverberates today—had it turned out otherwise Barack Obama would likely not be President.
- REGENT PRESS
