Barry Siegel

The author of Actual Innocence recounts the brutal murder of four-year-old Dennis Jurgens in 1965 by his adoptive parents, the cover-up that followed, and Dennis's birth mother's discovery of the truth more than twenty years later. Reprint.

A Death in White Bear Lake

The True Chronicle of an All-American Town

Jon Mills

David Cole

Edward Wasserman

Ronald Goldfarb

Hodding Carter, III

Thomas S. Blanton

Was Edward Snowden a patriot or a traitor? Just how far do American privacy rights extend? And how far is too far when it comes to government secrecy in the name of security? These are just a few of the questions that have dominated American consciousness since Edward Snowden exposed the breath of the NSA's domestic surveillance program. In these seven previously unpublished essays, a group of prominent legal and political experts delve in to life After Snowden, examining the ramifications of the infamous leak from multiple angles: • Washington lawyer and literary agent RONALD GOLDFARB acts as the book's editor and provides an introduction outlining the many debates sparked by the Snowden leaks. • Pulitzer Prize winning journalist BARRY SIEGEL analyses the role of the state secrets provision in the judicial system. • Former Assistant Secretary of State HODDING CARTER explores whether the press is justified in unearthing and publishing classified information. • Ethics expert and dean of the UC Berkley School of Journalism EDWARD WASSERMAN discusses the uneven relationship between journalists and whistleblowers. • Georgetown Law Professor DAVID COLE addresses the motives and complicated legacy of Snowden and other leakers. • Director of the National Security Archive THOMAS BLANTON looks at the impact of the Snowden leaks on the classification of government documents. • Dean of the University of Florida Law School JON MILLS addresses the constitutional right to privacy and the difficulties of applying it in the digital age.

Privacy, Secrecy, and Security in the Information Age

After Snowden

Die verzweifelte Suche einer Mutter nach ihrem Sohn lüftet die düsteren Geheimnisse einer amerikanischen Kleinstadt Als Jerry Sherwood mit 17 Jahren den kleinen Dennis zur Welt bringt, entscheiden die Behörden, dass er nicht bei ihr bleiben kann. Der Junge wird gegen ihren Willen zur Adoption freigegeben. Lois Jurgens kann keine eigenen Kinder kriegen, und da sie gesicherte Verhältnisse bieten kann, vertrauen die Sozialarbeiter ihr Jerrys Sohn an. Doch noch vor seinem vierten Geburtstag stirbt der kleine Dennis. Bauchfellentzündung, lautet die offizielle Todesursache. Doch wieso musste Dennis wirklich sterben? Zwanzig Jahre später, versucht Jerry, ihren Sohn zu finden. Als sie von seinem Tod erfährt, beginnt sie zu recherchieren und findet Schreckliches: Dennis Verletzungen von damals weisen auf Mord hin. Außerdem scheint die Polizei den Fall damals unter den Teppich gekehrt zu haben, obwohl alles darauf hindeutet, dass Dennis Pflegemutter ihren Kindern gegenüber gewalttätig war. Mit Hilfe der Behörden möchte Jerry die Wahrheit herausfinden - und alle Hinweise führen unmissverständlich zu Lois Jurgens ...

Die Stadt, die nicht vergessen konnte

On October 6, 1948, a U.S. Air Force B-29 Superfortress crashed soon after takeoff, killing three civilian engineers and six crew members. In June 1949, the engineers' widows filed suit against the government, determined to find out what exactly had happened to their husbands and why the three civilians had been on board the airplane in the first place. But it was the dawn of the Cold War and the Air Force refused to hand over any documents, claiming they contained classified information. The legal battle ultimately reached the Supreme Court, which in 1953 handed down a landmark decision that would, in later years, enable the government to conceal gross negligence and misconduct, block troublesome litigation, and detain criminal suspects without due-process protections. Claim of Privilege is a mesmerizing true account of a shameful incident and its lasting impact on our nation—the gripping story of a courageous fight to right a past wrong and a powerful indictment of governmental abuse in the name of national security.

A Mysterious Plane Crash, a Landmark Supreme Court Case, and the Rise of State Secrets

Claim of Privilege

In this remarkable legal page-turner, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Barry Siegel recounts the dramatic, decades-long saga of Bill Macumber, imprisoned for thirty-eight years for a double homicide he denies committing. In the spring of 1962, a school bus full of students stumbled across a mysterious crime scene on an isolated stretch of Arizona desert: an abandoned car and two bodies. This brutal murder of a young couple bewildered the sheriff 's department of Maricopa County for years. Despite a few promising leads—including several chilling confessions from Ernest Valenzuela, a violent repeat offender—the case went cold. More than a decade later, a clerk in the sheriff 's department, Carol Macumber, came forward to tell police that her estranged husband had confessed to the murders. Though the evidence linking Bill Macumber to the incident was questionable, he was arrested and charged with the crime. During his trial, the judge refused to allow the confession of now-deceased Ernest Valenzuela to be admitted as evidence in part because of the attorney-client privilege. Bill Macumber was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. The case, rife with extraordinary irregularities, attracted the sustained involvement of the Arizona Justice Project, one of the first and most respected of the non-profit groups that represent victims of manifest injustice across the country. With more twists and turns than a Hollywood movie, Macumber's story illuminates startling, upsetting truths about our justice system, which kept a possibly innocent man locked up for almost forty years, and introduces readers to the generations of dedicated lawyers who never stopped working on his behalf, lawyers who ultimately achieved stunning results. With precise journalistic detail, intimate access and masterly storytelling, Barry Siegel will change your understanding of American jurisprudence, police procedure, and what constitutes justice in our country today.

The True Story of a Convicted Murderer and the Lawyers Who Fought for His Freedom

Manifest Injustice

In a legal thriller--the object of rave reviews in the nation's newspapers--a virtuous California lawyer matches wits with an astonishingly duplicitous woman as he tries to help his former partner beat a murder rap. Reprint.

The Perfect Witness

How one man brought the Olympics to Los Angeles, fueling the city's urban transformation. Dreamers and Schemers chronicles how Los Angeles's pursuit and staging of the 1932 Olympic Games during the depths of the Great Depression helped fuel the city's transformation from a seedy frontier village to a world-famous metropolis. Leading that pursuit was the "Prince of Realtors," William May (Billy) Garland, a prominent figure in early Los Angeles. In important respects, the story of Billy Garland is the story of Los Angeles. After arriving in Southern California in 1890, he and his allies drove much of the city's historic expansion in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Then, from 1920 to 1932, he directed the city's bid for the 1932 Olympic Games. Garland's quest to host the Olympics provides an unusually revealing window onto a particular time, place, and way of life. Reconstructing the narrative from Garland's visionary notion to its consequential aftermath, Barry Siegel shows how one man's grit and imagination made California history.

Barry Siegel

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