DEATH OF A 'JEWISH AMERICAN PRINCESS' The True Story of a Victim on Trial

Hardback. In 1981, Phoenix Restaurateur Steven Steinberg murdered his wife Elana, stabbing her 26 times in their bedroom. It was a brutal crime that rocked a city, and a trial that made a mockery of justice. In 1982 the murderer left the courtroom a free man in possession of his victim's property. He had been sleepwalking, a jury of his peers decided, when he slew his wife, while she cried out to her two children for help. After the not guilty verdict was announced to a packed courtroom, one of the jurors kissed the handsome defendant; other jurors shook his hand, saying, "God bless you, Steve." This is the story of a terrible miscarriage of justice; a triumph of the temporary insanity defence. The defence strategy played to the jury's worst prejudices by making Elana Steinberg appear guilty of causing her own murder. The verdict, which exonerated the murderer and condemned the victim, sent a shock wave through the community, leaving a profoundly disturbing sense that the legal system had failed in a significant way. Illus. + Epilogue. 281pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. f. in Vg+ pcdw.