Evento

Judge Linda Rocker - Mandel JCC Festival of Books

No one wants punishment more than the parents of a victim of violence, but when a case goes to trial in a Palm Beach, Florida courthouse that suffers a brutal murder and a bombing within weeks of the jury verdict, everyone has a stake in the outcome. In her debut novel Punishment: A Legal Thriller, Judge Linda Rocker opens a rare window into the behind-the-scenes lives of prosecutors, the prosecuted and judges, carefully explaining the motives and pressures that complicate legal cases.

The novel tells the story of an ambitious young prosecutor who rolls the dice on a charge of intentional first-degree murder in the case of a young woman who was killed by her lover's pit bull. The father of the victim, who has already lost one child, vows that if his daughter's killer (and the dog) are not sentenced to death, he will take charge of the punishment himself. Well-known author, playwright and award-winning journalist Cynthia Dettelbach said, "In Linda Rocker's debut novel, two seemingly disparate court cases come together in a tangled web of mayhem, murder and mystery. Woven into that web are insights into the often shadowy workings of America's criminal justice system. Punishment is a fun read!"

Cleveland's Own Linda Rocker received a master's degree from Case Western Reserve University and graduated magna cum laude from Cleveland Marshall Law School, where she served as an editor of The Law Review. She practiced defense litigation at a major law firm in Cleveland and in 1989 was appointed to the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga County, where she served as a full-time judge and later as a Visiting Judge. She published Punishment on the day she took full retirement from her position as a judge. Linda and her husband live in Lyndhurst.