Not The Michael Mello I Know
Dublin Core
Title
Not The Michael Mello I Know
Subject
Capital punishment
Informed consent (Medical Law) -- United States
Mello, Michael
Description
Paul J. Perkins writes a response letter to the Valley News editor describing his former law professor Michael Mello. Perkins writes about his pro bono work on the Spaziano case and general advocacy on capital punishment reform as well as the informed-consent statute in Vermont.
Creator
Perkins, Paul J.
Source
Perkins, Paul J. "Not The Michael Mello I Know." Valley News (Lebanon, NH), November 6, 1997, p. 1.
Publisher
HIST 298, University of Mary Washington
Date
1997-11-06
Rights
The materials in this online collection are held by Special Collections, Simpson Library, University of Mary Washington and are available for educational use. For this purpose only, you may reproduce materials without prior permission on the condition that you provide attribution of the source.
Format
1 JPGs
300 DPI
Language
English
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
[Publication info] Valley News Thursday, November 6, 1997
[Title] Not The Michael Mello I Know
To The Editor:
I read with displeasure the article “Evolution Of A Death Row Lawyer” (Sunday Valley News, Oct. 12). I have known Professor Michael Mello since I entered law school in 1995. I chose to enroll at Vermont Law School in large part because he is tenured here. Given his academic resume, his many professional and personal accomplishments, and the publicity he has received, I expected to meet an unapproachable professional with little patience for students who have so little to recommend us. Instead, I found a man eager to teach in and out of the classroom, a friendly professor who catches a student’s mere hint of self-deprecation and quickly counters it, one who eagerly lends books and invites critiques of every aspect of his life, including writings, from students and colleagues. He is an energetic and complex individual in the most Kierkegaardian sense.
On the day my classmates and I stood on the banks of the White River while our professors and deans introduced themselves, a telephone message awaited Mello. It was a message that his client of 20 years was scheduled to be executed. That message ultimately led him to enlist the aid of his students in winning a stay of execution for “Crazy” Joe Spaziano (the fourth or fifth, a record in death cases) and to fly on a moment’s notice to Florida to argue another issue in the case before the Florida Supreme Court. This was done pro bono, as usual, and funded by his personal credit cards.
That death case would be his last.
He has turned to advocacy in public interest. Mello now writes. Instead of pouring all his ideas and work into briefs for one client, he writes law review articles, articles in The Nation, and books for academics, law students, lawyers and everyone else about the capital-punishment system and the toll it takes on our lives. Do a search on Westlaw, Lexis or just about any other data base, and you will see his works, his statements and his testimony before Congress quoted, borrowed or paraphrased too many times to count. Lawyers use those works in their cases, and enlist personal help as well. Mello happily stays behind the case, off brief, providing advice and research and emotional support
One also sees his public-interest advocacy in the case in which he is presently involved as a plaintiff: He is trying to put some teeth into an informed-consent statute in Vermont that prevents most Vermonters from gaining access to the courts when they claim medical malpractice based on the lack of informed consent. Unfortunately, the lack of research done for the Valley News article and its lack of analysis would seem to belie his motive. I wish the Valley News would put as much energy into analyzing his case and his accomplishments as it trying to disparage him.
[Author] Paul J. Perkins
[Residence of Author] South Royalton
[End of Page]
[Title] Not The Michael Mello I Know
To The Editor:
I read with displeasure the article “Evolution Of A Death Row Lawyer” (Sunday Valley News, Oct. 12). I have known Professor Michael Mello since I entered law school in 1995. I chose to enroll at Vermont Law School in large part because he is tenured here. Given his academic resume, his many professional and personal accomplishments, and the publicity he has received, I expected to meet an unapproachable professional with little patience for students who have so little to recommend us. Instead, I found a man eager to teach in and out of the classroom, a friendly professor who catches a student’s mere hint of self-deprecation and quickly counters it, one who eagerly lends books and invites critiques of every aspect of his life, including writings, from students and colleagues. He is an energetic and complex individual in the most Kierkegaardian sense.
On the day my classmates and I stood on the banks of the White River while our professors and deans introduced themselves, a telephone message awaited Mello. It was a message that his client of 20 years was scheduled to be executed. That message ultimately led him to enlist the aid of his students in winning a stay of execution for “Crazy” Joe Spaziano (the fourth or fifth, a record in death cases) and to fly on a moment’s notice to Florida to argue another issue in the case before the Florida Supreme Court. This was done pro bono, as usual, and funded by his personal credit cards.
That death case would be his last.
He has turned to advocacy in public interest. Mello now writes. Instead of pouring all his ideas and work into briefs for one client, he writes law review articles, articles in The Nation, and books for academics, law students, lawyers and everyone else about the capital-punishment system and the toll it takes on our lives. Do a search on Westlaw, Lexis or just about any other data base, and you will see his works, his statements and his testimony before Congress quoted, borrowed or paraphrased too many times to count. Lawyers use those works in their cases, and enlist personal help as well. Mello happily stays behind the case, off brief, providing advice and research and emotional support
One also sees his public-interest advocacy in the case in which he is presently involved as a plaintiff: He is trying to put some teeth into an informed-consent statute in Vermont that prevents most Vermonters from gaining access to the courts when they claim medical malpractice based on the lack of informed consent. Unfortunately, the lack of research done for the Valley News article and its lack of analysis would seem to belie his motive. I wish the Valley News would put as much energy into analyzing his case and his accomplishments as it trying to disparage him.
[Author] Paul J. Perkins
[Residence of Author] South Royalton
[End of Page]
Original Format
Newspaper
Contributor of the Digital Item
Leonard, Gavin
Student Editor of the Digital Item
Van Doren, Jamie
Files
Citation
Perkins, Paul J., “Not The Michael Mello I Know,” HIST299, accessed July 4, 2024, http://hist299.umwhistory.org/items/show/281.