Journal from the road

I'm on the road with a car load of books and courtroom art, heading across the vast desert toward San Francisco for the Lust for Justice book launch on Saturday, Nov 20th at San Francisco's Ft Mason Center, room C-370 from 5-8 pm. Come one come all! It's going to be GRAND! Tony Serra will have footage of his speeches and interviews streaming. DVD's will be available. I'll do a reading. Tony will surely have plenty to say as well -- he always does -- and he's always great. There'll be books for sale and courtroom art both originals and prints. Don't miss this great moment!

New Biography is a No-Holds-Barred Examination of J. Tony Serra, the Greatest Counter-Culture Lawyer of His Time

Get the inside scoop on law through the eyes of one of its greatest practitioners in this newly-released biography from Lightning Rod Publications, and you’ll never view the justice system the same way again.

LUST FOR JUSTICE: The Radical Life and Law of J. Tony Serra (ISBN # 0-615-38683-0) is the first and only book to appear about San Francisco’s charismatic counter culture lawyer, acclaimed one of the ten best lawyers of the century. His long career has made him an icon of the underdog and a champion of civil rights leaders, a hero to some, a trickster to others, always a force to be reckoned with in court.

Author/artist Paulette Frankl followed Serra in and out of the courtroom for over a decade to capture in words and images his life and his law in a readable form that speaks to both lawyers and laymen alike. It is filled with murder, drugs, and death-penalty cases, snitches, the psychological elements of crime, the nullification of and nexus with juries, closing arguments, interwoven with humor and pathos. LUST FOR JUSTICE pulls the black robe off the justice system to show it from Serra’s stance: as a railroad to prison for minorities.

Frankl treats her subject with an unflagging truth to portray Serra in all his complexity, including his renegade lifestyle, his resolute beliefs, and the legal system he serves and transforms. She delivers gems on every page.

Superstar lawyer and author Gerry Spence, in his Foreword to this book states, “I remember Race Horse Haines, one of the great lawyers of his time, who said that when he faces a troublesome problem in the courtroom, he asks himself, “What would a real lawyer do here?” When I face a tyrant judge or an overpowering opponent, I ask, “What would Tony Serra do here?” But rarely do I have the courage to follow the answer.”

Serra’s successful defense of Black Panther leader Huey Newton launched him into the orb of great criminal defense lawyers. His cases are the subject of movie and TV docudramas. His tax issues with the IRS landed him in Lompoc Prison Camp for 10 months, which he chronicled in essays and poetry sampled in this book.

Meet Tony Serra and author/artist Paulette Frankl at the book launch on Saturday, November 20, 2010, at the San Francisco Fort Mason Center, Room C-370 from 5:00-8:00pm. Books as well as signed courtroom art in original and print form will be available. More about LUST FOR JUSTICE can be seen at www.lustforjustice.net

Video trailer for Lust for Justice

Just finished the video trailer for my book, Lust for Justice. Check it out. http://youtu.be/blTEp0x7cGg