A Call for Justice: A New England Town's Fight To Keep A Stone Cold Killer In Jail

by Denise Lang

When the law won't work, you have to work the law...

The murderer stalking the quiet town of Warwick, Rhode Island in the late summer of 1989 was an unrepentant psychopath--"a living, breathing killing machine," in the words of a Boston Globe columnist. He butchered a family in their home--not far from the site where he had killed another woman two years earlier--just for the thrill, it seemed, of watching them die. When Craig Price was apprehended by police two weeks later, he grinned cheerfully and confessed to the crimes. He was tried and convicted, but sentenced to a mere five years imprisonment--the maximum penalty allowed by law. At the age of twenty-one he would be sent back to the streets and no one doubted he would kill again...unless drastic measures were taken.

A Call for Justice is the gripping true story of how a cop willing to put his career on the line, members of the victims' families, and other enraged citizens banded together and dedicated years of their lives to keeping a remorseless young killer behind bars. They would gain national media attention, enlist the aid of Rhode Island's attorney general, and even capture the ear of the President of the United States. Theirs is a cautionary tale of a flawed legal system ill-equipped to dispense true justice--and of a community's determination to see justice done, even if it meant twisting the law until it worked.When the law won't work, you have to work the law...

Genres: True Crime

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[Fishface · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good read on a very interesting case. Remarkably little space in this book was devoted to the crimes themselves; it was almost all about the groundswell of public feeling about the case, the teaming between the families of the victims and the Attorney General's office, and the advocacy efforts to try to change the law to accommodate this case. The legal questions that arose as a result are troubling, and we got to see how it all got worked out in court. And let me say that they never lost me for a minute. The author managed to keep the story moving right along when she could easily have bogged down in legal minutiae. It probably matters that a very similar case was unfolding in my own neighborhood with some very close parallels to this one. But I think most readers with any interest in tough legal questions and the constant balancing act the courts have to play between protecting the public and protecting the rights of the accused will find this one totally gripping.

[Donna Humble · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting book. There is a lot of information about the murders as well as the efforts by the townspeople to change the laws that allowed prison time to only be until their 21st birthday for teenage convicted murderers.

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great true crime read...it had me on the edge of my seat not knowing if they'd be able to keep him locked up. This teen is a scary person and I hope for the sake of society that he's still behind bars.