I Killed Sam: A Novel Based on the 1957 Groundbreaking Trial of a Battered Woman

By Robert Steadman

Book Overview

Trial attorney Bob Steadman, 93, was inspired to write I Killed Sam, based on his ground-breaking defense of a battered woman in 1957, when most of the country accepted and supported spouse abuse. Despite the long, legal odds, the fictional attorney Bob Nichols tries a never-before-tried-strategy of positing a dual defense, which, on the surface, appears contradictory: self-defense and temporary insanity. This fictionalized account of the Flint, Michigan, trial is more than a legal trial, replete with unexpected plot turns and the drama of a young, small-town lawyer trying to juggle his obligations to his client and to his fledgling law practice. There's also romance-Nichols is in love with Betty, the defendant and his high school sweetheart whom he should never have let go. Nichols is tortured by the thought of losing his long-shot, legal gamble, which would mean forever losing Betty to a life sentence in prison.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1954786522
• ISBN13: 9781954786523
• Release Date: October 2021
• Publisher: Mission Point Press
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 8.0"