Right to Counsel: A Lawyer's Struggle to Defend a Serial Killer

"Potts has captured the personal conflicts and shared commitment to the rule of law in a precedent-setting trial of a stone cold serial killer, revealing many insightful details I never knew existed. And it was my case!" - Pat Dingle, Homicide Detective, Ret. North Las Vegas Police Department In the late 1970s, a crime wave swept California. Several young girls were kidnapped, brutally raped, and murdered. Michael Dee Mattson, a drug addict with severe emotional problems, was convicted of these crimes and sentenced to be executed in California's gas chamber. James Potts, an aspiring young attorney still coming to terms with the rape of his own younger sister, is asked to find a way to get Mattson's conviction overturned. After making a discovery that could potentially set Mattson free to rape and kill again, Potts struggles with his own moral dilemma: Use this information to free Mattson or let him languish on death row.