BOOK: Jessica K. LOVE, Murder in the Shenandoah. Making Law Sovereign in Revolutionary Virginia (Cambridge: University Press, 2019). ISBN: 9781108421782, pp. 222, £ 39.99

(Source: CUP)

ABOUT THE BOOK

On July 4, 1791, the fifteenth anniversary of American Independence, John Crane, a descendant of prominent Virginian families, killed his neighbor's harvest worker. Murder in the Shenandoah traces the story of this early murder case as it entangled powerful Virginians and addressed the question that everyone in the state was heatedly debating: what would it mean to have equality before the law - and a world where 'law is king'? By retelling the story of the case, called Commonwealth v. Crane, through the eyes of its witnesses, families, fighters, victims, judges, and juries, Jessica K. Lowe reveals how revolutionary debates about justice gripped the new nation, transforming ideas about law, punishment, and popular government.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jessica K. Lowe teaches at the University of Virginia, School of Law.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1. The facts of the fight

2. The making of a republican judge

3. Examination: class, procedure, and local courts in Crane's Virginia

4. The Bloody Code and the logic of legal reform

5. Indictment: power shifts and power continuities in Virginia's courts

6. Crane's trial and its 'imperfect' verdict

7. 'That stigma on my character': judges, judicial review, and 'republican' interpretation of the laws

8. Murder or manslaughter? Crane's special verdict at the general court

9. Pardon request: mercy and Crane's 'lunatic fits'

Conclusion

More information is available with the publisher.

BOOK: "Landmark Cases in Criminal Law" P. Handler, H. Mares and I. Williams eds (May, 2017)

Landmark Cases in Criminal Law, edited by Philip Handler, Henry Mares and Ian Williams 

all information here

Criminal cases raise difficult normative and legal questions, and are often a consequence of compelling human drama. In this collection, expert authors place leading cases in criminal law in their historical and legal contexts, highlighting their significance both in the past and for the present.

The cases in this volume range from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century. Many of them are well known to modern criminal lawyers and students; others are overlooked landmarks that deserve reconsideration. The essays, often based on extensive and original archival research, range over a wide spectrum of criminal law, covering procedure and doctrine, statute and common law, individual offences and general principles. Together, the essays explore common themes, including the scope of criminal law and criminalisation, the role of the jury, and the causes of change in criminal law.

Table Of Contents