About "Exoneration"

Q. Tell us a little about the story in Exoneration;

In a small town setting, law is political and the scope of law, in fact, is just what a local judge says it is. This reality is presented in the book and in this context EXONERATION is about the serious ethical and legal breaches still rampant in the daily lives of women as Katie Hornsby becomes the trial lawyer for a man charged with the murder of his wife by allegedly using a drug commonly used in surgical procedures.

Q. Is Exoneration a political book?

Prior to publication I had a friend read the book to offer any suggestions. He shared his wife‘s response to the book with me. She told him she didn’t realize that I was such a raging liberal. At first, I was surprised at her response. The novelist Grace Paley once said when people asked why her books weren’t more political, “I have to explain to them that writing about the lives of women is politics.” EXONERATION is not about me being a liberal, but about the serious ethical and legal breaches still rampant in the daily lives of women. It’s just a story about a young woman lawyer, Katie Hornsby, whose major occupation involves taking on causes within the scope of our judicial system. EXONERATION is thus decidedly political as Katie undertakes to represent a man charged with the murder of his wife. Many real-life stories have surfaced recently as part of the #MeToo movement. Women in seemingly every industry are sharing their experiences of sexual abuse by people in power. It’s all about power and there will always be those with that sense of entitlement doing their disgusting stuff, unless resisted or exposed. Resistance means outing and shaming that kind of behavior, over and over; Documenting it, pursuing grievances, going to court, going to the press and writing novels about it.

Q. Why did you write Exoneration?

I am a trial lawyer (since 1974). I have always made it a part of my practice to take on pro bono difficult cases; The major part of my law practice dealt with drug issues, the causes of birth defects, life-ending blood dyscrasia, etc.; The issues presented in Exoneration are a fictionalized version of the longest and most difficult pro bono case I ever handled. The novel is exactly what it is; a novel, but it resembles a case involving a drug that is commonly used in surgical procedures being claimed to be a murder weapon.

Q. So Exoneration is a story about a young attractive professional woman facing sexual harassment by the judge in the murder case in which she is defending a man charged with murdering his wife. How does she manage this?

Harassment is not a trial to be overcome but a standing threat hanging over a woman’s career. As Katie navigates the courtroom, she must brush off innuendo and swat away gropes in order to prove that she can cut it in a man’s world. As an avatar for the modern professional woman in order to compete with men, she must endure things that men do not. What does Katie do? Since Katie’d had to fend the judge off herself — that the judge was a menace. Couldn’t she have helped save other women from his abuse? Katie has her own solution to the wrongs the judge has inflicted on her, and her client as a result. Q. Can you tell us the ending? How did it end? I don’t want to give away the ending. Let’s suffice it to say that in the past five years, when stories of workplace harassment began tumbling out from all around the world, Katie could have tweeted, simply: “#MeToo”, but her professional ethics would prevent her from revealing how she handled this moment in her life.