Mello, Michael 1957–

(Michael A. Mello)

PERSONAL:

Born March 24, 1957, in Washington, DC; son of Everett (a railroad baggage handler) and Ida (a secretary) Mello; married December 30, 1995; wife's name, Deanna. Ethnicity: "Portuguese, Polish, and Russian." Education: Mary Washington College, B.A. (with honors), 1980; attended Case Western Reserve University; University of Virginia, J.D., 1982. Politics: "Bleeding-heart liberal." Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: Private pilot.

ADDRESSES:

Home—White River Junction, VT. Office—Vermont Law School, South Royalton, VT 05068; fax: 802-763-2663.

CAREER:

Lawyer, educator, and writer. Worked as licensed emergency medical technician, 1972-77; Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin (law firm), Washington, DC, law clerk, 1982; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Birmingham, AL, law clerk to Judge Robert S. Vance, 1982-83; Office of the Florida Public Defender, West Palm Beach, assistant public defender in Capital Appeals Division, 1983-85; Office of the Capital Collateral Representative for the State of Florida, Tallahassee, senior assistant and defender of indigent inmates of death row whose sentences had been affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court and who had been denied executive clemency, 1985-86; Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (law firm), Washington, DC, associate, 1987-88; Vermont Law School, Royalton, assistant professor, 1988-90, associate professor, 1990-91, professor of law, 1991—. University of Maryland, adjunct professor, 1988; Dartmouth College, Thurlow M. Gordon Speaker, 1999; presenter at seminars; guest on television programs, including Larry King Live and Good Morning America. Florida Bar, chair of Capital Punishment Subcommittee, 1985-87, cochair of Individual Rights and Responsibilities Committee, 1986-87; served as counsel to American Bar Association, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Legal Aid and Defender Association, American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, and American Civil Liberties Union. Civil Air Patrol, cadet, 1971-75.

MEMBER:

Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Citation for "outstanding book on the subject of human rights in North America," Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America, 1996; citation for "significant university press title," Choice, 1997-98, for Dead Wrong: A Death Row Lawyer Speaks out against Capital Punishment.

WRITINGS:

Against the Death Penalty: The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall, Northeastern University Press (Boston, MA), 1996.

Dead Wrong: A Death Row Lawyer Speaks out against Capital Punishment, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 1997.

The United States of America versus Theodore John Kaczynski: Ethics, Power, and the Invention of the Unabomber, Context Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Wrong Man: A True Story of Innocence and Death Row, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2001.

Deathwork: Defending the Condemned, foreword by Mark E. Olive, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 2002.

Legalizing Gay Marriage, foreword by David L. Chambers, Temple University Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2004.

Contributor to books, including Facing the Death Penalty: Essays on a Cruel and Unusual Punishment, edited by M. Radelet, Temple University Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1989; A Capital Punishment Anthology, edited by V. Streib, Anderson, 1993; and America's Experiment with Capital Punishment, edited by J. Acker, Carolina Academic Press (Durham, NC), 1998. Contributor of more than 100 articles and reviews to law journals and other periodicals, including Trial, Nation, and Washington Post.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael A. Mello spent six years working in the legal field, four of them as a public defender on behalf of inmates on death row in Florida. This experience has provided, in one form or another, the basis for his books.

Mello's first book, Against the Death Penalty: The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall, provides an overview of the legal, moral, and ethical bases of the many dissents that these two Supreme Court justices have written in cases where the other seven justices upheld the death penalty as constitutional. Writing in the British Journal of Criminology, Rod Morgan commented that the author offers a "fascinating account of the minority dissenting view." His second book, Dead Wrong: A Death Row Lawyer Speaks out against Capital Punishment, is much more personal. In Dead Wrong, Mello defends his decision to stop practicing law on behalf of death row inmates and to take a job as a professor at the Vermont Law School. Although public defenders may save the lives of a few innocent men along the way, their effect in serving to legitimize an inherently indefensible system far outweighs any small-scale good that they might do. "In strong graceful language, Mello describes his journey to becoming a conscientious objector to the death penalty," wrote Colman McCarthy of Dead Wrong in the Nation.

The Wrong Man: A True Story of Innocence and Death Row tells of Mello's experiences defending Joe Spaziano, dubbed "Crazy Joe" by many newspapers. Spaziano, who had suffered brain damage as the result of a car accident, was convicted of the rape and murder of a young woman on the testimony of a drug-addicted sixteen-year-old and was sentenced to death. It was later discovered that this witness was prepared for testimony by a hypnotist who was sympathetic to the prosecution. When the involvement of the hypnotist was discovered, Mello petitioned for a new trial, but his request was denied. In frustration, Mello asked the Miami Herald, a notoriously pro-death penalty newspaper, to review the case. The editor reluctantly agreed. While the Herald was investigating the case, Florida governor Lawton Chiles signed Spaziano's death warrant, setting the execution date at four weeks hence. The teenage witness from Spaziano's first trial eventually recanted his testimony to a Herald reporter, and the Herald published this as a front-page story. Chiles granted a stay of execution. Eventually, an agreement was reached where Spaziano pleaded guilty of second-degree murder and had his sentence reduced to life in prison, even though Spaziano still maintains his innocence. Mello includes a wide range of evidence, including letters written to Mello by Spaziano from jail, to make his case for the cruelty of the death penalty and the legal machine that supports it. Steve Weinberg, in a review of The Wrong Man for Columbia Journalism Review, wrote: "I have read about a hundred books [telling the stories of innocent individuals convicted of crimes], but I have never read one about the phenomenon as impassioned, intemperate—or as controversial concerning the role of journalists—as the lawyer Michael Mello's account of the Joseph Spaziano case."

Mello has also written The United States of America versus Theodore John Kaczynski. In the book, the author condemns the fact that Kaczynski's lawyers refused to let him mount his own defense, even though the defense he wanted to mount would almost certainly have resulted in his receiving the death penalty.

In his 2002 book, Deathwork: Defending the Condemned, the author delves into what lawyers face when they defend prisoners in capital cases. Recounting numerous cases, Mello presents a book that is part memoir and part legal casebook in which he provides a behind-the-scenes look at the life and work of a death row lawyer and his clients. Using his experience as background, the author raises questions about various legal issues in capital cases, from misconduct by prosecutors to the racial inequities of sentencing. He also discusses rules of evidence, the rights of the mentally ill, and constitutional issues that are typically raised post-conviction. In addition, Mello delves into the psychological impact of working with prisoners facing death, from the adrenaline rush of an unexpected success to the sadness of an execution. Darren Ingram, writing in M2 Best Books, commented that the author "gives a relatively easy-going legal overview of some incredible cases yet raises some concerning points at the same time without being too over-bearing."

With his 2004 book, Legalizing Gay Marriage, Mello departs from his focus on capital punishment to examine an issue that has risen to prominence in twenty-first century society and politics. Examining the legal challenges to existing marriage laws and the constitutionality of any form of union for same-sex partners, the author looks at the political battles that divided Vermont. "The rancor of the battles left a bad taste in everyone's mouth," the author noted in an interview on the Temple University Press Web site. "Gays and lesbians wanted real victory while marriage homophobes wanted nothing. What is more, most Vermonters didn't want to think about the issue at all."

Writing of his belief that battles over legalizing gay marriage will take place across the country, the author examines recent landmark decisions in state and federal high courts concerning the granting of civil rights protections to homosexuals. He explores how the public discussion of equal civil protections for gays and lesbians became mired in contending views of morality, religion, social mores, and the sanctity of heterosexual marriage. The author also contends that virulent opposition to same-sex unions reveals that homosexuals are a reviled minority that needs the law's protection. He goes on to provide an overall guide to the battles being waged in state legislatures by politicians at the national level.

Noting in Law & Politics Book Review that the author "provides a timely, accessible, and even moving account of how Vermont became the first state to institute gay civil unions," Susan Burgess wrote that Mello also presents "a compelling story and a sophisticated analysis of legal and political change." Writing in the Library Journal, Richard J. Violette commented that the author "skillfully navigates the swirling background of legal, historical, political, social, and ethical issues."

Mello told CA: "I write because I have to write. I'm never sure what I think about a subject until I write about it. Why I publish what I write is a more complicated question. I write about my death-row clients to bear witness and to make a historical record of who the government is killing and under what circumstances. And writing about their stories brings them back to life. That's what stories do: bring the dead back to life.

"The greatest influences on my work are storytellers (William Faulkner, Tim O'Brien) and poets (Stephen Vincent Benet's John Brown's Body, Wilfred Owen, Sam Hazo).

"I write the old-fashioned way: ballpoint pen on yellow legal paper. My secretary word-processes my scribblings, and then I edit and revise. My books typically go through more than fifty rounds of edits and revisions.

"I was inspired to write on the subjects I have chosen by living through them. My four years as a Florida capital public defender were the fundamental experience of my life. That experience provided a lifetime of material for a writer."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Lawyer, June, 1995, Roger Parloff, "When Worlds Collide; The Death-Penalty Abolitionist Who Tried to Defend the Pro-Life Murderer," pp. 76-82.

Booklist, December 1, 1997, Mary Carroll, review of Dead Wrong: A Death Row Lawyer Speaks out against Capital Punishment, p. 591.

British Journal of Criminology, spring, 1997, Rod Morgan, review of Against the Death Penalty: The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall, pp. 291-294.

Choice, June, 1998, L.E. Noble, Jr., review of Dead Wrong, p. 1788.

Columbia Journalism Review, September, 2001, Steve Weinberg, review of The Wrong Man: A True Story of Innocence and Death Row, p. 76.

Economist, February 14, 1998, review of Dead Wrong, pp. R3-R4.

Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, March, 2006, Ronald J. Mancoske, review of Legalizing Gay Marriage, p. 257.

Lambda Book Report, April 1, 2005, Seth A. Bookey, "Making a Case for Marriage: 2004 Brought Same-sex Unions into the Headlines, and onto the Bookshelves."

Law and History Review, fall, 1998, Francis A. Allen, review of Against the Death Penalty, pp. 631-634.

Law & Politics Book Review, December, 2004, Susan Burgess, review of Legalizing Gay Marriage, pp. 946-949.

Legal Times, September 10, 2001, Steve Weinberg, review of The Wrong Man, p. 25.

Library Journal, July, 2004, Richard J. Violette, review of Legalizing Gay Marriage, p. 101.

M2 Best Books, April 29, 2003, Darren Ingram, review of Deathwork: Defending the Condemned.

Nation, December 29, 1997, Colman McCarthy, review of Dead Wrong, pp. 32-33.

National Law Journal, February 23, 1998, Cynthia Cotts, "Death Row Defender Declares Himself a Conscientious Objector," p. A20; February 15, 1999, Marcia Coyle, "Unabomber's Pen Pal: Ted Wants a New Trial," p. A1.

New York Law Journal, August 9, 1996, Ursula Sentele, review of Against the Death Penalty, p. 2.

Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, spring, 1997, David Capper, review of Against the Death Penalty, pp. 73-75.

Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, FL), July 15, 2001, Tom Blackburn, "Case of ‘Crazy Joe’ Still Smelling up Justice," p. 4J.

Political Science Quarterly, spring, 1998, Laurence A. Benner, review of Against the Death Penalty, pp. 163-165.

Publishers Weekly, December 8, 1997, review of Dead Wrong, p. 63; May 31, 1999, review of The United States of America versus Theodore John Kaczynski: Ethics, Power, and the Invention of the Unabomber, p. 78; February 5, 2001, review of The Wrong Man, p. 76.

Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), June 6, 1999, Ed Halloran, "Legal Ethics Short-changed Unabomber," p. 3E.

Trial, July, 2001, Harry Mitchell Caldwell, review of The Wrong Man, p. 87.

Washington Post, June 3, 2001, David Kairys, "Questionable Judgment," p. T10.

ONLINE

City Pages,http://articles.citypages.com/ (February 25, 1998), Douglas Kearney, review of Dead Wrong.

Temple University Press Web site,http://www.temple.edu/tempress/ (June 5, 2008), "Michael Mello Debates Legalizing Gay Marriage."

Vermont Guardian,http://www.vermontguardian.com/ (May 17, 2007), Greg Guma, "Executing Justice: A Murder Trial Reignites Vermont's Death Penalty Debate," includes interview with author.

Vermont Law School Web site,http://www.vermontlaw.edu/ (June 5, 2008), faculty profile of author.