John Henry Browne is an American criminal defense attorney, who is still practicing in Seattle, Washington. He has tried hundreds of criminal cases, some of which were very notable. One of those cases was of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a member of the United States Armed Forces, who killed sixteen Afghan civilians in Kandahar. He wound up pleading guilty to sixteen counts of murder, six counts of attempted murder, and seven counts of assault. Browne claimed he did this because he may have been upset about seeing his friend injured, but not because he had mental problems or hated Muslims. (It was announced in 2019 that he would be seeking a new trial in civilian court with the defense that anti malaria drugs caused him to do this.) He also participated in the defense of serial killer Ted Bundy, which is what drew me to this book in the first place. (I thought his thoughts about his conversations about Bundy were really interesting.) He represented more distasteful characters than this, so if you are interested in stuff like that, you may want to check this book out.

This book was included in the Audible Plus catalog. I think it was a four hour listen. I listened to part of it last night and finished it up this afternoon. I have always wondered what motivated defense attorneys to defend people they very clearly know are guilty of heinous crimes. Browne has found himself the subject of a lot of controversy and public criticism. He attempts to take the focus away from his very guilty client and focus on their backgrounds in order to gain some measure of sympathy and relief in the sentencing process. I suppose that no matter what side of the law your client is on, you work for the best result for your client. I think that is hard for a lot of people to reconcile when they are confronted with the terrible crimes of someone, say like Ted Bundy. I thought the personal conversations and case facts included in this book were very interesting, but then I am interested in true crime stuff in general. (Thanks to my sister.) This was a great, quick little book for me to listen to while waiting on my kid to fall asleep.