The Killing of Bonnie Garland

Description

“A powerful and passionate indictment of the use of psychiatric testimony in criminal cases.”
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer

A year after Richard Herrin confessed to killing his girlfriend, Bonnie Garland, he was found not guilty of murder. His crime, he pleaded, was committed “under extreme emotional disturbance,” excusing him from maximum responsibility. He was convicted on the reduced charge of manslaughter.

In this incisive examination of the murder, the trial, and its aftermath, a distinguished psychiatrist addresses the issue of the insanity defense. He shows how psychiatric testimony can distort court proceedings, and brilliantly analyzes the conflict between the individual rights of the accused and society’s right to justice.

A professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, a practicing psychiatrist, and cofounder of the Hastings Center (an institute devoted to ethical issues in the life sciences), Willard Gaylin is the author of eleven books, including Rediscovering Love, On Being and Becoming Human, Feelings: Our Vital Signs, and The Male Ego.US