Research Catalog

Nobody's child : a tragedy, a trial, and a history of the insanity defense

Title
Nobody's child : a tragedy, a trial, and a history of the insanity defense / Susan Vinocour.
Author
Vinocour, Susan Nordin
Publication
  • New York, NY : W. W. Norton & Company, [2020]
  • ©2020

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Details

Description
xii, 338 pages; 24 cm
Summary
"A powerful and humane exploration of the "insanity defense," through one heartbreaking case. A three-year-old boy dies, having apparently fallen while trying to reach a bag of sugar on a high shelf. His grandmother stands accused of second-degree murder. Psychologist Susan Nordin Vinocour agrees to evaluate the defendant, to determine whether the impoverished and mentally ill woman is competent to stand trial. Vinocour soon finds herself pulled headlong into a series of difficult questions, beginning with: Was the defendant legally insane on the night in question? As she wades deeper into the story, Vinocour traces the legal definition of insanity back nearly two hundred years, when our understanding of the human mind was in its infancy. "Competency" and "insanity," she explains, are creatures of legal definition, not psychiatric reality, and in criminal law, "insanity" has become a luxury of the rich and white. With passion, clarity, and heart, Vinocour examines the troubling intersection of mental health issues and the law"--
Alternative Title
Tragedy, a trial, and a history of the insanity defense
Subject
  • Insanity defense > United States
  • Insanity (Law) > United States
  • Competency to stand trial > United States
  • Trials (Murder) > New York (State)
  • Competency to stand trial
  • Insanity defense
  • Insanity (Law)
  • Trials (Murder)
  • New York (State)
  • United States
Note
  • "The names and identifying details of many people who appear in this book have been changed. Dialogue has been reconstructed based on the author's contemporaneous notes, her recollection of events, interviews, and trial evidence."
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Prologue -- The Crime -- The Trial -- The Punishment -- Epilogue
ISBN
  • 9780393651928
  • 0393651924
  • 9780393651935 (canceled/invalid)
  • 0393651932 (canceled/invalid)
LCCN
2019050530
OCLC
  • on1126349408
  • SCSB-9674094
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library