For release Nov 1, 2022. Published by Skyhorse Publishing and distributed by Simon & Schuster, available for pre-order from amazon, barnes and noble, kobo, google play, and apple books.
From Amanda Knox to O.J., Casey Anthony to Kyle Rittenhouse, our justice system faces scrutiny and pressure from the media and public like never before. Can the bedrock of “innocent until proven guilty” survive in what acclaimed Seattle attorney and legal analyst Anne Bremner calls the age of judgment?
When unscrupulous Italian prosecutors waged an all-out war in the media and courtroom to wrongly convict American exchange student Amanda Knox for a murder she didn’t commit, family and friends turned to renowned Seattle attorney and media legal analyst Anne Bremner to help win her freedom. The case was dubbed the “trial of the decade” and would coincide with the explosion of social media and a new era of trying cases in public as much as the courtroom. While Italian prosecutors, the press, and online lynch mobs convicted Knox in the court of public opinion, Bremner would draw upon her decades in the courtroom and in front of the camera to turn the tide with a new kind of defense in pursuit of justice.
In Justice in the Age of Judgement, Anne Bremner and Doug Bremner take us inside some of the biggest cases of recent times and offers their expert, thought-provoking insights and analysis as our legal system faces unprecedented forces fighting to tip the scales of justice their way. Why couldn’t prosecutors convict O.J. Simpson despite all of the evidence seemingly proving he killed his wife Nicole? Could a jury remain unbiased in the face of overwhelming public pressure in the trial of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd? Why was Kyle Rittenhouse exonerated after shooting three people (killing two) with an assault rifle at a violent rally despite widespread media reports seemingly proving his guilt, and national calls for his conviction?
Justice in the Age of Judgement is an unparalleled and unflinching look at the captivating cases tried on Twitter and TV, where the burden of proof and fundamental legal tenet of “innocent until proven guilty” is under assault from the court of public opinion.
Anne Bremner, JD, is a trial attorney and one of the nation’s most recognized legal analysts. Her decades-long practice emphasizes civil rights, catastrophic loss, defense, and criminal law. In her thirty-five years as an attorney, she has been lead counsel for numerous highly publicized court cases. As a contributing broadcast legal analyst, Bremner appears regularly on national networks including CNN, Fox, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, the BBC, Court TV, and others. She has been voted one of the best lawyers in Seattle and one of Seattle’s Top 25 most influential people. She is a Stanford graduate and has a perfect AVVO rating as an attorney. She lives in Seattle, Washington
Doug Bremner, MD, is a psychiatrist, researcher, writer, and professor at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Bremner is a world leader in research in the field of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and memory, including studies related to false memories with relevance to coerced testimony. He has served as an expert witness in litigation related to PTSD and drug safety and has often appeared on CNN as an expert analyst. He has written over 400 research papers and several best-selling books including Does Stress Damage the Brain? and Before You Take That Pill: Risks and Side Effects You Won’t Find on the Label of Commonly Prescribed Medications, Vitamins and Supplements. Dr. Bremner lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
What would you say if your daughter’s boyfriend called to tell you your daughter had taken off all her clothes, tied her hands behind her back, tied a rope around her feet, stuffed a t-shirt in her mouth, put a rope around her neck, and tied one end to the leg of a bed in a maid’s room, closed the door to the room, crossed over to a second story balcony, and then vaulted to her death without disturbing any of the dust on the railing? Oh, and the leap didn’t cause the maid’s bed to move. And, oh, before she leaped, she painted in black paint on the wall “She saved him, can you save her.” Oh, and by the way, this was a suicide.
Would you believe him? I wouldn’t.
This is exactly what happened in the mysterious case of Rebecca Zahau.
On July 13, 2011, Rebecca Zahau was found bound and gagged, hanging from a Juliet balcony at the Spreckles Mansion in toney Coronado, California. John Spreckles had two mansions in Coronado and one in San Francisco, and he settled in Coronado when he started the San Diego Tribune. One of the Coronado mansions, built in 1908, was directly across from the famed Hotel Del Coronado. It even had a $40,000 room fashioned for the visit of the duke and duchess of Windsor in the 1940s. The mansion, which last went on the marker for $17.5 million, was owned by Jonah Shacknai, Rebecca’s boyfriend, the billionaire owner of the company Medicis, which made Restylane, a cosmetic face filler.
The pair lived with his five-year-old son, Max (known as “Maxey”). Just two days prior to the discovery of Rebecca’s body, Max fell down the grand staircase and was critically injured. He pulled down a chandelier in the fall. A scooter and ball were nearby, as was the family dog, Ocean. Rebecca and her sister, Xena, were home at the time and in opposite ends of the mansion from the central sweeping staircase. Jonah rushed home, and Max was rushed to the hospital. He lived for only two and a half days. The doctor said he had been suffocated. Jonah’s brother, Adam Shacknai, flew in from Tennessee for support. He settled into the guest house behind the mansion but never visited Max at the hospital. Rebecca was found dead and hanging before Max succumbed to his injuries. I was asked to represent Rebecca’s family.
“She saved him, can you save her” was painted on the door of the balcony room in black paint and large letters. Rebecca’s hands were bound behind her back with red rope and perfect nautical knots. Her feet were similarly bound. She had a T-shirt fashioned as a gag in her mouth. The rope from which she was hanging was tied to a bed in the maid’s room. The bed had been moved but didn’t drag from her weight. Enough rope was used for her to go over the railing but not touch the ground. The soles of her feet were dirty. A neighbor heard a scream around 11:00 p.m. from his den window, which faced the mansion.
Adam claimed to police he “discovered” Rebecca in the early morning, the day after he arrived at the mansion. He later testified in a civil trial he had been in his room in the guest house watching porn on his cell phone that morning and hadn’t heard anything. He claimed when he found her, he immediately cut her down and called 911. In his call, he described her as “that girl” and seemed disoriented. His lawyer was one of the first on the scene. He took a polygraph approximately twelve hours after calling 911, in which he admitted to “not having the best bedside manner.” He departed for the Lindberg airport almost immediately, having never been to the hospital.
Later it was discovered that the writing on the door matched his height, and blood from Rebecca’s menstrual cycle was found in the master shower and on a knife linked to Adam. We asked famed forensic expert pathologist Cyril Wecht to exhume Rebecca and conduct an independent autopsy. He found four symmetrical injuries to the top of her head. And most importantly, he found that she didn’t die from hanging: she died from strangulation and blunt force trauma while on her back. Lividity, which is where the blood settles when you die, was found fixed in her back. Rebecca had not been depressed or suicidal. But the San Diego Police Department immediately closed the case as a suicide. They left her naked body exposed in the house for seventeen hours. It was filmed by news crews from the air. Interestingly, the French doors to the balcony where she supposedly jumped to her death were noted to have been closed behind Rebecca, as if she reached behind her to close them on her way over the edge. The balcony had no disturbance in the dust on the rail.
Adapted from "Justice in the Age of Judgment: From Amanda Knox to Kyle Rittenhouse and the Battle for Due Process in the Digital Age." From Skyhorse Publishing distributed by Simon & Schuster, coming Nov 1 2022.
About Doug Bremmer
No comments:
Post a Comment