Renegade for Justice

Defending the Defenseless in an Outlaw World

Stephen Saltonstall, Michael Meltsner

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780700633678
• eBook ISBN: 9780700633685
• Subtopic: Law Biographies

“This is a book of courtroom war stories, drawn from my forty years of experience as an obscure lawyer for the underdog and the downtrodden.” So begins Renegade for Justice, a memoir of a public interest lawyer driven by the cause of justice. While the stories Stephen Saltonstall tells are entertaining, they are also instructive, providing, as he says, “an insider look at the American justice system, which is rigged against the poor and people of color and tolerates police perjury.”

Renegade for Justice begins by telling the story of how and why a privileged kid from Cambridge, Massachusetts, broke from family tradition and devoted his professional life to defending the defenseless in a justice system that is crippled by systemic injustice. Activist lawyer Stephen Saltonstall brings readers into the world of criminal defense by recounting narratives of his cases, including a successful attack on a Massachusetts death penalty statute, appeals of two notorious homicide cases (a serial murderer and a cop-killer), an effort to save the life of a little boy whose parents refused to give him the medical treatment he needed for acute lymphocytic leukemia, free speech cases for students and an environmentalist carpenter, litigation to save critical black bear and neotropical migratory songbird habitat from US Forest Service clear-cutting, and more. In a system biased against the public interest and the underprivileged, Saltonstall gives people a model for practicing values-based law.

Channeling the spirit of radicals like William Kunstler, Saltonstall writes not only for activists who want to better understand our society, but also for those thinking about becoming a lawyer. As he writes in the preface, “I hope my stories will challenge those of you—you know who you are, you who dream of soft landings in the glittering halls of boring, soul-free law firms doing the bidding of the uber-rich and powerful—to visualize the alternative, a career that’s built on cases and causes that further the public interest, human rights, and care of the natural world."

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword by Michael Meltsner
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1. Prelude: Suicide Notes and Golden Hits on the Way to the Bar
• Chapter 2. The Outlaw Road and Its Challenges
• Chapter 3. My First Case: Representing a Serial Killer
• Chapter 4. Representing a Cop-Killer
• Chapter 5. The Chad Green Case: Medicine Versus Quackery
• Chapter 6. Fighting to End the Death Penalty in Massachusetts
• Chapter 7. Vermont Law Practice
• Chapter 8. The Cowboy Snodgrass Case
• Chapter 9. My Most Troubling Walk-In Cases: The Cleaning Lady and the Doctor and the Gun on My Desk
• Chapter 10. Continuing with Public Defense
• Chapter 11. Homicides by Auto
• Chapter 12. Representing the Worst Person in Vermont
• Chapter 13. Getting Rid of a Bad Judge
• Chapter 14. Operation Rescue Accuses Me of Attempted Murder
• Chapter 15. Combatting the War on Drugs
• Chapter 16. Defending Nature
• Chapter 17. The Lamb Brook Aftermath
• Chapter 18. Political Cases
• Chapter 19. A Precedent-Setting Case for Student Freedom of Speech
• Chapter 20. Foiling a Frame-Up
• Chapter 21. Epilogue: From Lawyer to Water-Truck Driver
• List of Relevant Cases
• Coda and Notes on Sources
• Index of Names
• About the Author
• Back Cover