Life After Murder

April 9, 2012
Can a murderer be redeemed? This is Mullane’s central theme in her revealing book of five murderers who all served lengthy sentences in California’s notorious San Quentin Prison, now seeking to live out the remainder of their tainted lives without condemnation or reproach. Without any attempt to excuse their crimes, Mullane, a producer for Public Radio International’s This American Life, offers a highly charged exposé of this quintet of hopeful ex-cons—Eddie Ramirez, Donald Cronk, Phillip Seiler, Jesse Reed, Richard Rael—battered by a wicked tangle of red tape and penal regulations, along with an unsympathetic outside world that refuses to either forget or forgive their transgressions. With their fates in the hands of the governor and the parole board, very few lifers are released, Mullane writes, and often wait up to 15 years between parole hearings. Boasting gripping, top-notch journalism, Mullane pierces the myth of the unredeemable killer with these portraits of troubled men in a society that fears and reviles them. Agent: Gail Ross Literary Agency.

May 1, 2012
A radio journalist immerses herself in the lives of five murderers incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison in California. NPR reporter and producer Mullane received remarkable cooperation from the prison staff as well as her subjects as they sought parole for good behavior and changed character. Though the parole process is long and complex, the decisions can be overturned by the governor without detailed explanation. However, for obvious reasons, most governors tend to reject parole requests from murderers even when prison officials and parole board members favor release. Mullane was surprised to learn that of the approximately 1,000 convicted murderers paroled in California in the last 21 years, not one has murdered again. The accounts of the five prisoners--Don Cronk, Ed Ramirez, Rich Rael, Phillip Seiler and Jesse Reed--interweave throughout the book, making the narrative difficult to track at times. The author examines their young lives before the murders, the circumstances of their crimes, their prison terms and their attempts to readjust to the world outside prison. She recounts interviews with family members, lovers and friends, but does not approach those close to the murder victims, a conscious editorial decision that certainly spared suffering for those loved ones but detracts from the book's emotional impact. Nonetheless, Mullane demonstrates clearly that each of the five men was to some extent a caring person who made a terrible decision on an especially bad day and has spent years trying to sincerely atone for the murder. The author believes in rehabilitation and second chances, and her accounts are unusual in their optimism about inmates living productively behind bars and after their release. Occasionally uneven, but overall an impressive investigative work with interesting findings that tend to contradict conventional wisdom.

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May 15, 2012

Readers coming to this book expecting vicarious thrills and insight into the minds of evildoers will soon be disappointed: though all five men interviewed here were imprisoned for murder, only two (if you believe their accounts) killed intentionally, and one of those in self-defense. Readers will also leave the book disappointed, as it reveals the sorry state of California law: how it keeps virtually all lifers in prison regardless of whether they have been granted parole--more often than not, until they die. Freelance reporter and producer Mullane, who has been featured on This American Life, effectively describes the tragic injustice of excessively lengthy incarceration and the difficulties the few lifers who are paroled have in readjusting to life "on the outside" (think The Shawshank Redemption). Occasional inconsistencies in interviewees' accounts and elsewhere are disruptive but rare. Mullane uses case studies to comment on incarceration, but she focuses more on its role in rehabilitation than in deterrence, public safety, or punishment, since her subjects are largely sympathetic. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in criminal biographies and for anyone living in California.--Ricardo Laskaris, Toronto

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