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The Christian Burial Case: An Introduction to Criminal and Judicial Procedure
Thomas N. McInnis Praeger
Westport, CT
2001
One of the most common public misconceptions of judicial decision making is that decisions are apolitical and based only on available case law. A second prevailing myth is that previous case law provides unambiguous guidance for police. The book, The Christian Burial Case: An Introduction to Criminal and judicial Procedure, seeks to dispel both of these myths. Do not be deceived by the title, however, as this is no ordinary introductory textbook. This text, authored by Thomas N. McInnis, is outstanding in its illustration of what happens to a case after it is decided by the district court. This text also underscores the nature of police interrogations and investigations as being unpredictable even within a mountain of case law.
McInnis follows one case from the time the crime was committed on December 24, 1968 until it is decided by the Supreme Court for the second time on June 11,1984. The victim, ten-year old Pamela Powers, was abducted from a public rest-room at a YMCA in Des Moines, Iowa. It is believed that she was taken to an apartment on the seventh floor of the building, where she was strangled to death. The suspect, Robert Williams, a licensed minister and mental hospital escapee who lived at the YMCA, was seen by eyewitnesses carrying a bundle out of the YMCA lobby. The bundle had "skinny white legs" protruding out from underneath the blanket. The suspect's car and some of the victim's clothes were later found at rest stops along the interstate. The suspect eventually turned himself in to the Davenport police, but the police had to transport him from Davenport to Des Moines. During the ride, in an effort to extract information from the suspect, the police made what is now known as the "Christian burial speech:"
I want to give you something to think about while we're traveling down the road .... They are predicting several inches of snow for you...