Doing Life

The classic true-crime chronicle of Jerry Rosenberg, America's first jailhouse lawyer. Criminal. Convict. Lawyer. Legend. A breathtaking excursion into a shocking and violent world, Doing Life is the story of Jerry Rosenberg, a one-time junior mobster from Brooklyn who, over forty-six years in prison, transformed himself into one of the finest legal minds in the country. His conviction in a double cop killing case was an express train straight to the electric chair. Desperate and drawn to the law because of the flagrant abuses in his case, Jerry discovered a loophole in New York s death penalty law and sprung himself from the Death House with a brilliantly argued appeal to Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. Jerry s story offers a brutal look inside the walls of Attica and Sing Sing, as he fights to become the first prisoner to earn a law degree-and then pleads his own and other inmates cases in brilliant, unforgettable courtroom confrontations. For many prisoners, Jerry was the only hope they had. He was a role model who used his mind instead of his fists. And most inspirational of all in the world of prison, a man who insisted he had a future.