Book Review: A second chance for justice: The prosecutions of Gabe Watson for the death of Tina Thomas

• Author: Melanie M. Holland
• Published date: 01 September 2014
• Date: 01 September 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734016814528355
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

pretenses blurs (if it does not cross) the line that separates treatment of the criminally irresponsible

from simple incapacitation or anticipatory punishment.

Their objective being to identify, rather than fully analyze or settle such questions, much of

interest necessarily remains unexplored in the chapters devoted t o these and other topics. For

example, it is possible, if not likely, that the Bail Reform Act’s authorization of the pretrial deten-

tion of arrestees because of their potential danger to the community, upheld in Salerno,simply

formalized a practice that judges have long utilized without saying as much. It is not uncommon

for bail to be set at such astronomically high levels that it might as well have been denied alto-

gether, and it is far from clear whether that practice owes more to the defendant’s likely future

dangerousness than securing his appearance for trial. Searching for a way to limit the reach of

Hendricks’ approval of the civil commitment of sex offenders who suffer only from a ‘‘mental

abnormality’’ (rather than a mental illness) Corrado offers a ‘‘radical’’ (p. 71) compromise. He

suggests that ‘‘violent sexual crimes be admitted as prima facie evidence of a lack of control’’

(p. 71) and that civil commitment might be justified when offenders display a pattern of engaging

in such conduct. This apparently noble attempt to limit the reach of a precedent that threatens to

unleash the much more widespread preventive detention of repeat offenders who commit other

types of crimes rests on assumptions and entails implications that demand considerably more

discussion than the lecture-based text is able to provide.

Much the same is true for similarly momentous questions that swirl around the other preventive

detention policies examined in Presumed Dangerous. Intriguing issues lurk immediately beneath

the surface of the pages used to explore the insanity defense, the prolonged detention of undesir-

able aliens who cannot easily be deported, and the indefinite confinement without trial of sus-

pected terrorists in the name of national security. But there those issues remain, tantalizingly

inviting recognition and analysis, yet introduced only at a level sufficient to whet the appetite

of an audience rooted in a land where the U.S. Constitution and the jurisprudence it has spawned

are literally foreign subjects.

It would be difficult to go into the depth that issues of this complexity and importance demand in

lectures under any circumstances and certainly in lectures delivered to an international audience.

The audience members who actually heard the lectures that Professor Corrado delivered at the

University of Trento doubtlessly were much enriched, as would be others who are new to the issues

and the fundamentaltensions that inhere in using law to resolve thedelicate balance between individ-

ual liberty and societal protection.However, Americans who have ‘‘done the reading’’—whoalready

have been introduced to the issues covered and the associated legal principles—might easily be

excused for not attending to the pages that essentially preserve and report the delivered lectures.

Flynn, A., & Fitz-Gibbon, K. (2013).

A second chance for justice: The prosecutions of Gabe Watson for the death of Tina Thomas. Newcastle upon Tyne,

United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars. viii-270 pp. $75.99 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-4438-4202-0.

Reviewed by: Melanie M. Holland, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016814528355

Authors Asher Flynn and Kate Fitz-Gibbon provide a provocative analysis of the complexities

involved in achieving justice within sentencing in their book A Second Chance for Justice: The

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