Innocent Until Proven Guilty...

Happy Tuesday!!!  I have just finished a great book called House Rules by Jodi Picoult.  It took me a couple of weeks to get through this one, but it was well worth it.  This book is surprisingly different from all of my Nicholas Sparks books that I have read while being here and was nice to have a change of pace from all the lovey dovey stuff (even though I will begin on another Nic Sparks book this week...don't judge!).  :)

To tell you a little about the book, it was about an 18 year old boy, Jacob, who has Asperger's syndrome.  If you are unfamiliar with Asperger's it is on the autism spectrum.  Asperger's is more of a high funtioning type of autism that, even though the individuals have high IQs and can function properly, effects things such as social interaction and understanding what other people are feeling or going through (a  little thing we know as empathy).  The boy, along with his family, finds himself in a bind due to him being convicted of murder.  I won't tell you anymore just in case you read it...which I highly suggest you do!

The most interesting character in this book to me is the defense attorney, Oliver.  I know my family is laughing about this one, because in the past I have had close ties with a defense attorney.  It was always interesting (and a little unnerving) to me how someone could defend a so-called criminal not really knowing the "truth" about that person's offense.  I give serious props to Oliver in the book because he is faced with serious difficulties due to the special needs of his client. 

I remember having all sorts of questions and asking about these things, which probably drove the person I knew half crazy, but that's another story.  :)  How can you defend someone you may think is guilty?  Does the person who is being convicted actually tell you that they are guilty or not guilty?  Do you morally feel wrong knowing you may be defending a true criminal?  These seem to be "normal" questions for someone who isn't used to defending criminals. :)  In the book, Oliver does a lot of going back and forth about what he believes and doesn't even really want to know what Jacob has really done, surprisingly this was the same response I would get from the person I knew.  How could you not want to know though?  It would drive me crazy not knowing for sure whether that person committed the crime or not, and then on top of that me having to get everyone in the courtroom to believe that they are innocent or try to get them a lesser (is this even a word?) punishment.  I guess that's why I'm not a defense attorney!  :) 

I hope you will check out this book and if you do read this let me know what your thoughts are.  I promise my next post will be something exciting about me doing something here in Panama and not a boring book review...HAHA!!  Bye for now!!