For the last four years, I have been working on a topic that I discovered has never been investigated in Connecticut: neonaticide--the killing of a child within 24 hours of birth. The state is in dire need of sentencing reform for this massively misunderstood crime.  My investigation has taken me to cemeteries, Buddhist temples, university programs, police depatrments, lawyers offices, and legislative hearings. I have become adept at retrieving and reviewing psychiatrists' and police reports. A police department invited me to review the only open neonaticide case in CT; legislators have asked for my participation a Safe Haven task; and defense attorneys are now using my body of work for their neonaticide cases. Press conferences, radio interviews. Presentations at Yale University. These have been wonderful offshoots of my four years of work on this crime. Affiliation with Yale has certainly helped in opening doors. But it's far from easy and I am learning the power of persistence. 

 

        I am hopeful the result of my endeavors will result in better justice for those unfairly accused who are without the means to fight. And perhaps there will be a long coherent story to come out of it. I have a 44 chapter manuscript.

 

        In the meantime I continue as a facilitator at York Correctional Institute. The women in our class are surprisingly sharp and challenging. They open your eyes to our problematic world of jurisprudence for the poor. I've have witnessed how "injustice" strikes quickly but redressing it requires a Herculean effort and progesses at a glacial pace. The three seasoned diehards--Susan Cole, Careen Jennings, and Wally Lamb--are models in this effort, years ahead of me.