Main Library, Lecture Hall, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
Growing up in a depression battered family, one tangled by a mortal secret, With Passion tells the improbable story of an unsung hero of the civil rights movement who thought of himself as a “miscast” lawyer but ended up defending peaceful protesters, representing Mohammad Ali, suing Robert Moses, counseling Lenny Bruce, bringing the case that integrated hundreds of southern hospitals, and named “the principal architect of the death penalty abolition movement in the United States.” More than a meditation on often frustrating legal efforts to fight inequality and racism, Michael Meltsner—also a novelist and playwright—vividly recounts the life of a New York kid, struggling to make sense of coming of age amid the tumult of vast demographic and cultural changes in the city.
Professor Meltsners will be in conversation with Daniel Medwed. Professor Medwed teaches Criminal Law, Evidence, and Advanced Criminal Procedure: Wrongful Convictions and Post-Conviction Remedies. His research and pro bono activities revolve around the topic of wrongful convictions. His book, Prosecution Complex: America’s Race to Convict and Its Impact on the Innocent (New York University Press, 2012), explores how even well-meaning prosecutors may contribute to wrongful convictions because of cognitive biases and an overly-deferential regime of legal and ethical rules. His recently published Wrongful Convictions and the DNA Revolution: Twenty-Five Years of Freeing the Innocent (Cambridge University Press, 2017), discusses the lessons learned from a quarter century of DNA exonerations. Professor Medwed is a legal analyst for WGBH News, Boston’s local NPR and PBS affiliate.