Death Without Dignity: America's Longest and Most Expensive Criminal Trial

by Steven Long

The case of State of Texas vs. Autumn Hills Nursing Homes, Inc. went to trial in a borrowed San Antonio courtroom 25 years ago. It matched a Texas dream team for the defense including Roy Minton, Tom Sartwelle, Mike Ramsey, and Roy Barrera Sr. against a determined (some would say obsessed) young assistant attorney general, David Marks, and his backup team from the state. The jury heard six months of horrifying testimony about catastrophic medical failure when corporate greed trumps medical care. Death Without Dignity is their story, told by a journalist who was allowed the exceedingly rare experience of being not only in the courtroom, but was allowed by the judge to be in chambers when lawyers wrangled out of earshot of the jury – something that had never been allowed any journalist before or since, according to the lead defense lawyer. The case remains today as the longest and most expensive criminal prosecution in Texas history and Death Without Dignity is now a courtroom classic.

384 pages, Paperback

Expected publication March 6, 2087

About the author

Steven Long is a triple threat. He is an editor, journalist, and humanitarian most famous for his books on some of the most sensational true crime events in the nation. He has spent more than 2,000 hours in the courtroom, more time than most practicing lawyers spend there in a lifetime. He has covered some of the most important cases of the last two decades. Few can capture the drama of lawyer vs. lawyer quite like him.

Now he takes his immense talent for narrative to the pages of fiction with his new novel Ruby's Passing, a worthy successor to his bestsellers, Death Without Dignity, Out of Control, and Every Woman's Nightmare.

Long began his career in radio but quickly moved to print. For most of 11 years, he served as editor and publisher of Galveston's In Between Magazine, an award-winning alternative weekly famed for its gritty investigative work. His first freelance piece appeared in the respected Texas Observer.

In the 1982 Texas election for governor, Steven Long asked the incumbent, Bill Clements, a question that changed the state's history. "Would you appoint a consumer, for example, a housewife, to the Texas Public Utilities Commission?" The governor blundered and answered, "There isn't a housewife in Texas qualified to serve on the PUC." He lost the election.

After closing In Between, Steven Long carved out a career as a feature writer with the Houston Chronicle. One article resulted in the indictment, conviction and disbarment of the late Houston adoption lawyer Leslie Thacker for buying and selling crack babies in several Texas county jails. Another series of investigative stories ultimately resulted in the indictment and conviction of the head librarian of the oldest medical school west of the Mississippi for stealing rare and historic medical texts, some dating to the sixteenth century. He exposed the Texas prison system's wholesale practice of allowing the use of inmates as subjects for medical residents to hone their skills in cosmetic surgery at a state teaching hospital.

Steven Long covered the Andrea Yates murder case for the New York Post from the scene to conviction. For the same paper, he located rogue CEO Ken Lay who hid for ten days when the Enron scandal broke. He covered the lengthy and complex trial of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm for Agence France Presse, as well as Crain's Chicago Business.

An avid horseman, he has been a contributor to Western Horseman magazine. He secured one of the last, if not the final interview with the late actor Tony Curtis for Cowboys and Indians Magazine

Steven Long is currently writing the prequel to Ruby's Passing. It too is set in the storied badlands of Texas' Big Bend country. The working title of the book, set in the 1883 Old West, is Sauceda.

Steven and Vicki Long, a fiction writer, live in Houston, Texas. He serves as Vice President of The Greater Houston Horse Council. The two own Horseback Magazine and Horseback Online, the nation's leading online newspaper covering the equine world.

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Reviews

[Melissa Hargrove · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elder abuse is a serious topic, I appreciate that. I'm sure there is a great deal of important information in this book that needs to be shared and heard. The problem is the accessibility of that information. Death Without Dignity is too dry to be interesting.

I read, skimmed, and then closed the book certain it would never hold my attention.