Pursuing the Horizon Stories of Justice

About this book

"Russ Canans book is a powerful testament as to . . . how the cause of justice can only be advanced if we love mercy." Bryan Stevenson Equal Justice Initiative "Russell F. Canans powerful and illuminating narrative is a must read for anyone who aspires to pursue justice while seeking to understand the challenges and conditions for achieving it. The book is written with passion and profound moral clarity." Greta Van Susteren journalist and former criminal defense attorney "In this intelligent and sensitive book Russell Canan does a masterful job providing the details of how and why judicial decisions are made while revealing his life experiences that influence his way of thinking." Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. (Ret.) "Pursuing the Horizon is a fascinating inside look at some of societys thorniest issues: race justice redemption termination of life support and literally life and death in the criminal justice system. How fortunate are the readers that they have a man of consummate civility morality heart and wit with whom to take this remarkable journey." Glenn Kirschner journalist and former federal prosecutor Pursuing the Horizon offers a collection of essays and courtroom stories from an activist death penalty lawyer and Washington D.C. judge struggling to seek justice in the courtroom in the fields where migrant farmworkers toil and in the rice paddies of Vietnam. The book explores justice in all its forms from freedom for beaten migrant farmworkers in the shadow of the Ku Klux Klan to life itself in a last-minute death row plea for mercy to Governor George Wallace of Alabama only to witness the client killed in a botched execution in the electric chair that shocked the world. A jurys capacity for forgiveness and redemption in Maryland is tested as a broken young man already serving time for murder and calling himself Helter Skelters Son is on trial for his life after killing his cellmate as his defense team fights to spare him from the gas chamber. Justice from the other side of the bench looks at the challenge for a judge wrestling with the age-old quandary of whether the ends justify the means when strictly following the law would result in a miscarriage of justice. In a separate case following on the heels of the Terri Schiavo controversy the judge must make the wrenching decision as to whether to terminate life support to allow a woman die with dignity when family members have different views of the right to live and right to die. The elusive search for justice follows the judge to a high-profile murder trial for the killing of a prominent Georgetown writer by her fabulist husband posing as an Iraqi general all the while conning a Vice President Supreme Court Justice and elite journalists. Finally the journey takes the author to Vietnam where he seeks to pay homage and find reconciliation at the site where his brother was killed in the war. Pursuing the Horizon allows the reader to sample some of the most horrifying perplexing and important issues in life and the law offering the general public via suspenseful and riveting stories a rare lens into the daily life and minds of those seeking to achieve justice and those who must live or sometimes die with the consequences of their efforts. Justice like the horizon always seems to be beyond our grasp. But that can never mean that we should stop pursuing it. This book is about the authors search for justice together with dedicated judges lawyers jurors those accused of crime those who are the victims of crime police social workers nurses mental health workers and the public at large.