Traitors and Heroes: A Lawyer's Memoir - Hardcover

Those accused of treason are often men and women who challenge the illegal acts of a political regime, according to this forceful account by human rights activist and New York City trial lawyer Garbus (Ready for the Defense who was courtmartialed by the U.S. Army in 1955 for his political views (charges were dropped). He has not only visited jails and documented atrocities committed in dictatorships but observed and participated in political trials of South African National Congress members: Allende supporters in Chile, including the murdered former ambassador to the U.S., Orlando Letellier; and such dissenters as Anatoly Shcharansky and Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union. Garbus also cites cases of human rights abuses in the U.S., like the 1973 treatment of the South Dakota Indians at Wounded Knee, and decries the recent flood of libel judgments unleashed by the Pentagon Papers case, which tends to curb free expression. Arguing that the U.S. has the power to influence international human rights, he urges adoption of a global bill of rights for all political prisoners.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this memoir Garbus, a human rights activist and trial attorney, celebrates the lives of men who have shown inexhaustible moral courage in the face of persecution for expressing their ideas. South African poet Breton Breytonbach, Soviet dissidents Anatoly Scharansky and Andrei Sakharov, and supporters of former Chilean president Allende were all prosecuted in "show trials." The trials were meant to prove that the government in power was a land of laws, but instead showed the government's disdain for human rights. Garbus also discusses political dissent in the United States, and the way, he believes, our government has used the catch-phrase "national security" to try to limit free speech. Highly recommended. Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.