Against the Death Penalty: The Relentless Dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall
(In this well-researched and copiously documented work, Mi...)
In this well-researched and copiously documented work, Michael Mello provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal, historical, and philosophical underpinnings of the Justices' relentless dissents against capital punishment. Mello begins with biographical sketches of Brennan and Marshall, examining how two men from divergent legal backgrounds came to share an unswerving stance against the death penalty. He then considers the historical, theoretical, and jurisprudential legitimacy of Supreme Court dissents in general, and sustained dissents in particular.
The United States of America Versus Theodore John Kaczynski: Ethics, Power and the Invention of the Unabomber
(Sifting through the mountains of evidence and hype surrou...)
Sifting through the mountains of evidence and hype surrounding the "Unabomber" case, the author analyzes the "non-trial" of Ted Kaczynski, revealing the ideological forces that drove him to commit his crimes and the bumbling legal proceedings that accompanied his trial.
The Wrong Man: A True Story of Innocence on Death Row
(The author, a law professor and critic of capital punishm...)
The author, a law professor and critic of capital punishment, describes the events associated with his client "Crazy Joe" Spaziano, including how he was wrongly accused, convicted, and sentenced to death.
(Part memoir, part casebook, this probing look at the deat...)
Part memoir, part casebook, this probing look at the death penalty focuses on the law that surrounds capital punishment and provides a candid, often disturbing look at how that law is applied.
(Every day seems to bring news of legal challenges to exis...)
Every day seems to bring news of legal challenges to existing marriage laws and the constitutionality of any form of union for same-sex partners. In this timely and accessible book, Michael Mello argues that the public debates and political battles that have divided Vermont and Massachusetts will be repeated across the country as state after state confronts the issue of legalizing gay marriage. Mello examines recent landmark decisions in state and federal high courts granting civil rights protections to homosexuals.
Michael A. Mello was an American lawyer, educator, and author. He was a professor at Vermont Law School.
Background
Ethnicity:
Michael A. Mello was of Portuguese, Polish, and Russian heritage.
Michael A. Mello was born on March 24, 1957, in Washington, District of Columbia, United States. He was a son of Everett and Ida Mello. He grew up in Arlington, Virginia.
Education
In 1980 Michael A. Mello received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mary Washington College (now University of Mary Washington). He also attended Case Western Reserve University. In 1982 he obtained a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Virginia.
From 1972 to 1977 Michael A. Mello worked as a licensed emergency medical technician. In 1982 he became a law clerk at Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, a law firm, in Washington, District of Columbia. From 1982 to 1983 Mello served as a law clerk to Judge Robert S. Vance at the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Birmingham, Alabama.
From 1983 to 1985 he was an assistant public defender in Capital Appeals Division Office of the Florida Public Defender in West Palm Beach. He had been a senior assistant and defender of indigent inmates of death row whose sentences had been affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court and who had been denied executive clemency at the Office of the Capital Collateral Representative for the State of Florida, Tallahassee. From 1987 to 1988 he was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, a law firm, in Washington, District of Columbia.
From 1988 to 1990 Mello served as an assistant professor at Vermont Law School, an associate professor from 1990 to 1991, and was appointed a professor of law in 1991. He authored books and articles relating to death penalty cases, including Deathwork: Representing the Condemned (2002), and The Wrong Man: A True Story of Innocence on Death Row (2001), Legalizing Gay Marriage (2004).
Michael A. Mello once told who influenced on his work: "The greatest influences on my work are storytellers (William Faulkner, Tim O’Brien) and poets (Stephen Vincent Benet’s John Brown’s Body, Wilfred Owen, Sam Hazo)."
Connections
On December 30, 1995, Michael A. Mello married Deanna Peterson.