Reddit reviews Anatomy of a False Confession: The Interrogation and Conviction of Brendan Dassey

Re: Your question on another book. I was hopeful, as I was watching season 2, that I'd get a new book idea. But nothing. I think the reason is that there were no trials featured in season 2. (The pretrial and trial phases, rather than the appeal, are my areas of interest.) But my BD book ships in less than one week. "Anatomy of a False Confession," here: https://www.amazon.com/Anatomy-False-Confession-Interrogation-Conviction/dp/1538117150

Also, you caught the gist of my post perfectly: "Reality check." Nothing was meant to criticize KZ. (I've only done one appeal ever, so that's not my place.) But viewers of the documentary could come away with an unrealistic impression about the resources and time available to try a case. That's no one's fault; it's a documentary about two particular cases, not a primer on how things work in a "typical" case. But in reality, trials are pure chaos. Even the ones I win, in hindsight, were flat-out nuts. I just won a trial last week, and what the prosecutor and I said in our opening statements was completely out the window once the evidence came in. Who knew? Despite reviewing every document and even interviewing the state's key witness, we were still (pleasantly) surprised by the testimony.

In any case, I'll be watching the documentary again, but I have to agree with the comment of one of the other posters. I am, so far, a bit unclear on what is the theory of the case and who they think did what. I really want to see the testimony of AC again, now that we believe a citizen witness told him about the location of the car. It seems like he might have been standing over it, as DS asked him at trial, while reading the license plate to the dispatcher.

Re: Your question on experts. I take some public defender appointments in Wisconsin, and they are pretty good about approving experts. In private cases, the client typically has to pay for them, or the defense lawyer can ask the court to appoint and pay, but I've never heard of such a request being approved in a private case. (I have heard of it being approved in a county-appointed defense, but that's different from a private retainer case or a public defender appointment.) Fortunately, most cases don't involve experts. When I've used them, it's been on public defender appointments or the client has paid for them directly. I haven't needed one on a county appointed case yet.)