Linda Fairstein
"Linda Fairstein has led an even more exciting life than her fictional heroine. Below are just some of her achievements"
In this interview Linda discusses Likely to Die, the growing number of female lawyers in the DA's office, and offers some insight into legal proceedings based on events in the OJ Simpson trial.
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Linda Fairstein
"Linda Fairstein has led an even more exciting life than her fictional heroine. Below are just some of her achievements" |
A. Sexual Violence was a "true crime" account of some of the bizarre and unusual matters which have passed through the Sex Crimes Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney's office. I turned to writing novels to soften the hard facts of what I do in this field. I was determined to create a character and as series based on real cases and actual crimes - to inform as well as to entertain. All of the anecdotal material and every case described in my novels is based on real events, although details have been fictionalized. By reading the novels, people will become more educated about the whole area of sexual assault and what is involved with prosecuting these types of crimes.
Q. Can you tell us more about the real life story behind your current plot for Likely to Die?
A. The very day I completed the manuscript for my first novel, Final Jeopardy, I read a story in The New York Times about the attempted murder of a physician in Nashville, Tennessee. I was struck by the circumstances of the crime and the identity of the person who was arrested and charged. I thought immediately of all the crimes I had prosecuted which had either taken place in medical centers, or involved health care professionals as victims or perpetrators.
Both aspects of my imagination - the prosecutorial and crime novelist sides - began spinning into action, I decided to set Likely to Die in Mid-Manhattan, a fictitious major medial center in New York City, after the facts of the Nashville case to create a different scenario and completely new characters, and build a mystery around all the real events I have worked on which have occurred in the medical community. Although Mid-Manhattan does not exist, I do place every other crime in the actual hospital in which it occurred.
Q. Most people view hospitals and doctor's offices as sanctuaries - places that we go to in order to be treated, cured, healed, and comforted for whatever condition brings us there. After reading Likely to Die, they might not be as eager to make that hospital visit or doctor's appointment. How do you respond to that?
A. Most of the public is incredulous when a victim charges a medical professional with criminal conduct. They don't "look like" our stereotypical images of predators. For me, the most fascinating part of using this medical setting to develop the investigation of a murder mystery, is that it gave me the opportunity to weave into the story dozens of the actual cases on which I have worked over the years. They include instances in which physicians have been victimized by people for whom they have been caretakers, situations in which health care professionals have molested patients, frauds committed by non-licensed individuals, and just about every other kind of criminal conduct that we have come to expect on our streets - not in the benign confines of a medical office.
I think it's important to shatter some of the myths we have about places and people that seem "safe," simply because of the expectations with which we come to them. My point with Likely to Die was to illustrate how blindly we sometimes place our faith in individuals and institutions, and how even members of law enforcement agencies assumptions about the guys wearing the white coats.
Q. Tell us about Alexandra Cooper, the central character in your novels.
A. Like me, Alexandra Cooper runs the sex crimes prosecution unit in the Manhattan D.A.'s office. She's in charge of the investigation for every assault case that occurs in New York City. She is the daughter of a physician and a nurse, as I am. That's where we're similar. Where we're different is she's younger, thinner, blonder! I like to think she's smarter and more patient, too. I've also tried to imbue Alexandra with the same sense I have about really liking the work I do.
Q. Is handling the investigation into these types of crimes difficult? Does it take a personal toll?
A. Personally, I think I have an easy job, although it's not for everybody. The nurses, the doctors, and the EMS workers who see the victims first have the roughest assignment. By the time I meet with the victims, they have already started to recover. For me, it's wonderful to be able to turn a traumatic situation around and really aid them in the recovery process.
I try to use humor, which has always been an important part of who I am, to keep my spirits up. However, there are certain nights I've taken the baggage home with me, because you just can't leave it behind no matter how hard you try. Most of the time, though, I can keep the professional part in perspective and have a very happy life outside it. If you didn't put it behind you, you'd be crippled by it.
Q. Do you think that women prosecutors have a tougher time than men? For example, during the O.J. Simpson criminal trial, Marcia Clark seemed to be the target for all sorts of gossip; we heard about her hair, her custody battle, etc. I don't recall hearing about Christopher Darden's personal life.
A. It is different for women. This is a profession that has long been dominated by men. When I came to the New York D.A.'s office in 1972, I was the seventh woman to join the staff of 200 male lawyers and my first murder case didn't come unit four years later. Now there are 600 lawyers in my office, half of whom are women. They don't realize what a huge step forward this is and that's another reason that I wanted to create a crime fiction series that featured a female prosecutor. Criminal trial litigation is a very new field for women and I think the public is fascinated, as shown by the sideshow issues that were the focus for Marcia Clark, but not for the male prosecutors in the case.
Q. While we're on the subject of O.J., DNA testing was a huge part of both the criminal and civil trials against him. How important is the use of DNA technology in your work?
A. It is the most significant tool we have in this business now and it's helping us resolve issues in a growing number of cases. We use it, when seminal fluid is deposited on or in the victim's body, to make a positive identification, or to confirm one that she has made visually. That really takes the weight off the victim at a trial - it is no longer just a matter of "her word" in proving the case. We can also use it to convict rapists who could never have been identified otherwise, because the women were blind or blindfolded by the attacker.
It's just as critical that we use it to exclude suspects. If a defense attorney tells me his client was in a different state on the day of the rape, I simply ask him to provide us with a vial of blood. If the suspect is not our man - meaning that there's no DNA match - there is no arrest.