Contemporary Authors

• Western Style Justice: Civil Practice in the U.S. District Court in Springfield MCLE (Boston, MA), 1997
• The Hanging Judge Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller (Boston, MA), 2013

1. The hanging judge LCCN 2013933471 Type of material Book Personal name Ponsor, Michael A. Main title The hanging judge / by Michael A. Ponsor. Published/Created Boston, MA : Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc., c2013. Description 374 p. ; 23 cm. ISBN 9781575897707 (pbk.) 1575897709 (pbk.) Shelf Location FLM2014 046930 CALL NUMBER PS3616.O617 H36 2013 OVERFLOWA5S Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms (FLM1) 2. Western style justice : civil practice in the U.S. District Court in Springfield LCCN 97080659 Type of material Book Personal name Ponsor, Michael A. Main title Western style justice : civil practice in the U.S. District Court in Springfield / Michael A. Ponsor, Frank H. Freedman, Kenneth P. Neiman. Published/Created Boston, MA (10 Winter Pl., Boston 02108-4751) : MCLE, c1997. Description xxviii, 108 p. : forms ; 22 cm. CALL NUMBER KF8755.M34 P66 1997 Copy 1 Request in Law Library Reading Room (Madison, LM242)

• The One-Eyed Judge - 2017 Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller, New York

• Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ponsor

  Michael Ponsor
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Michael Adrian Ponsor
  Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
  Incumbent
  Assumed office
  August 15, 2011
  Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
  In office
  February 14, 1994 – August 15, 2011
  Appointed by Bill Clinton
  Preceded by Frank Harlan Freedman
  Succeeded by Mark G. Mastroianni
  Magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
  In office
  1984–1994
  Personal details
  Born Michael Adrian Ponsor
  1946 (age 70–71)
  Chicago, Illinois
  Education Harvard University (B.A.)
  Yale Law School (J.D.)
  University of Oxford (M.A.)
  Michael Adrian Ponsor (born 1946) is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He serves in the court's western region, in the city of Springfield.

  Contents [hide]
  1 Education
  2 Career
  3 Federal judicial service
  4 Award
  5 The Hanging Judge
  6 The One-Eyed Judge
  7 References
  8 External links
  Education[edit]
  Ponsor graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969, and received a Rhodes Scholarship, studying at Pembroke College, Oxford, from which he obtained a Master of Arts degree in 1971. He graduated from Yale Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1975.

  Career[edit]
  Ponsor served as a law clerk to Judge Joseph L. Tauro of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1976. He was in private practice in Boston, Massachusetts from 1976 to 1978 and in Amherst, Massachusetts from 1978 to 1983. He was an adjunct professor at Yale Law School from 1989 to 1991 and Western New England University School of Law since 1988. He served as a United States Magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts from 1984 to 1994.

  Federal judicial service[edit]
  Ponsor was nominated to be a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts by President Bill Clinton on November 19, 1993, to a seat vacated by Judge Frank H. Freedman. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 10, 1994, and received his commission on February 14, 1994. He assumed senior status on August 15, 2011.

  Award[edit]
  Judge Ponsor was named as the 2015 recipient of the Golden Pen Award from the Legal Writing Institute.[1]

  The Hanging Judge[edit]
  Ponsor's debut novel, The Hanging Judge, was released in December 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media. Based on his own experience presiding over a 2000 Massachusetts capital case, the first in the state in more than fifty years, this legal thriller offers an unprecedented inside view of a federal death penalty trial.

  Plot: When a drive-by shooting in Holyoke, Massachusetts, claims the lives of a Puerto Rican drug dealer and a hockey mom volunteering at an inner-city clinic, the police arrest a rival gang member. With no death penalty in Massachusetts, the US attorney shifts the double homicide out of state jurisdiction into federal court so he can seek a death sentence.

  The Honorable David S. Norcross, a federal judge with only two years on the bench, now presides over the first death penalty case in the state in decades. He must referee the clash of an ambitious female prosecutor and a brilliant veteran defense attorney in a high-stress environment of community outrage, media pressure, vengeful gang members, and a romantic entanglement that threatens to capsize his trial—not to mention the most dangerous force of all: the unexpected.

  The One-Eyed Judge[edit]
  Ponsor's second novel, The One-Eyed Judge was released in June 2017, and is the second book in the Judge Norcross Novels.

  Plot: When FBI agents barge into Sidney Cranmer’s home accusing him of a heinous crime, the respected literature professor’s life becomes a nightmare. Cranmer insists the illicit material found by the agents isn’t his, but the charge against him appears airtight, and his academic specialty—the life and work of controversial author Lewis Carroll, creator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland—convinces investigators he’s lying.

  Presiding over the case against Professor Cranmer, U.S. District Judge David Norcross fears his daily confrontation with evil has made him too jaded to become a husband and father. His girlfriend, Claire Lindemann, teaches in the same department as the defendant and is convinced of his innocence. Soon, she will take matters into her own hands. Meanwhile—with his love life in turmoil and his plans for the future on hold—a personal tragedy leaves Norcross responsible for his two young nieces. Unbeknownst to him, a vengeful child predator hovers over his new family, preparing to strike.

  References[edit]
  Jump up ^

• United States District Court - http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/springfield/ponsor.htm

  Home: Springfield: Judge Information: Ponsor, Michael A.
  Springfield
  Overview
  Contact Information
  Court Calendar
  Hours & Directions
  Judge Information

  View Inscriptions
  Ponsor, Michael A.
  Born 1946 in Chicago, IL

  Federal Judicial Service
  Judge, U. S. District Court, District of Massachusetts
  Nominated by William J. Clinton on November 19, 1993, to a seat vacated by Frank H. Freedman; Confirmed by the Senate on February 10, 1994, and received commission on February 14, 1994.

  U.S. Magistrate, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, 1984-1994

  Assumed senior status on August 15, 2011

  Education
  Harvard University, B.A., 1969
  Yale Law School, J.D., 1975
  Oxford University, M.A., 1979

  Staff
  Chambers
  Judicial Assistant Elizabeth Collins
  Clerk's Office
  Courtroom Clerk Bethaney Healy 413-785-6803
  bethaney_healy@mad.uscourts.gov

  Docket Clerks Maurice Lindsay
  Mary Finn 413-785-6805
  413-785-6806 maurice_lindsay@mad.uscourts.gov
  mary_finn@mad.uscourts.gov
  Court Reporter Alice Moran 413-731-0086
  Courtroom Number
  Springfield, Hampden Courtroom
  Courtroom Technology
  Contact the courtroom clerk regarding use of this equipment.
  Both the District and Magistrate Judge courtrooms are equipped with a fully integrated evidence presentation system with 15" viewing monitors for each attorney table, the witness, the Judge and their staff, and two 40" in wall mounted plasma displays for the gallery. The jury box also has 15" monitors built into the front and back rows of the jury box, one for every two jurors. Evidence being displayed from any source can be annotated from the witness, lectern, and Judges monitors. All attorney tables have the ability to connect both audio and video from a computer through a standard VGA port [laptop/desktop and even Mac/Apple if you have the VGA adapter]. In addition, there are two computer audio and video inputs located at the lectern location. Also at the lectern, is a document camera for displaying physical evidence that is not electronic and a VCR unit. Each courtroom has built-in video conferencing cameras for remote appearances, but only one conference can be made at the same time. A portable video conference unit can also be brought in.

  Chambers Procedures/Standing Orders/Sample Orders
  Consent Procedures

  Standing Order

• Mass Live - http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/judge_michael_ponsor_reveals_s.html

  BREAKING NEWS - MASSLIVE.COM
  Judge Michael Ponsor pens "The Hanging Judge," shedding light on the legal system and death penalty

  Posted June 2, 2013 at 12:00 PM
  Comment
  4
  shares
  By Stephanie Barry sbarry@repub.com
  ponsbook.JPGU. S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor with a copy of his new book,The Hanging Judge. Staff photo by Mark Murray
  SPRINGFIELD - It didn't come easily.

  Five hours of writing each Saturday for seven years when he could have been mowing his lawn or playing with his kids - and with a couple of literary disappointments already behind him.

  U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor's recently published book, "The Hanging Judge," is his first published novel and the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education's first fictional work. Ponsor, a federal judge for more than 30 years, dedicated to the book to the memories of Dominic Daley and James Halligan, Irish immigrants hanged unjustly in Northampton in 1806.

  The plot focuses on a death penalty trial and is set in Western Massachusetts. One of its main characters is a small-time drug dealer accused in a double murder and the trial lands in the lap of the Honorable David S. Norcross, a relatively green judge catapulted to the position by a politically connected family member.

  During a recent interview, Ponsor said he drew from his own experiences for the footprint of the book, as well as the characters and dialogue. He added that he had misgivings about appearing to reveal so much of himself and inviting readers to draw inferences about his philosophies while still on the bench.

  Appointed as a magistrate judge in 1984 and then a district judge 10 years later, Ponsor took senior status, or semi-retired, in 2011 but is still a sitting judge on hundreds of criminal and civil matters.

  "I had huge reservations. This book is just a tiny teaspoon of an ocean of thoughts in my head dealing with the American legal system. The book really has three sides to it and they all draw from my own personal experience," said Ponsor, a Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar who lives in Amherst.

  First, it delves into the "distinctly American legal system with all its beauties and warts," the judge said.

  Secondly, the novel celebrates the region and thirdly, the book is what Ponsor calls a cautious exploration of the death penalty.

  "I wanted people to know how it actually works. I wanted people to understand the structure of it and how complex it is," he said.

  Ponsor presided over the death penalty trial of Veterans' Administration nurse Kristen Gilbert in 2001. She was convicted of the murders of four ailing veterans under her care by lethal doses of epinephrine, but was spared the death penalty. She is serving life in prison.

  Ponsor said he wanted to craft a story that bore no factual parallels to the Gilbert trial.

  He said he wrote two unsuccessful novels prior to "The Hanging Judge," when he had aspirations to become a writer as opposed to a lawyer.

  But, while in private practice in Amherst, he was instead appointed a judge, which consumed most of the next two decades.

  "At some point I realized that judges are the unappointed legislators of mankind, and what we do is just as creative," Ponsor said.

  The book is only available through the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education's website but will be commercially available in the fall.

• Boston Globe - https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2014/11/12/judge-fictional-account-gives-inside-view-death-penalty-trial/0MNHviSnpLA9t9BaMoj6vO/story.html

  Judge’s fictional account gives inside view of death penalty trial
  1
  By Milton Valencia GLOBE STAFF NOVEMBER 12, 2014
  Judge Michael A. Ponsor’s novel “The Hanging Judge” involves a murder trial.
  STEVEN G. SMITH
  Judge Michael A. Ponsor’s novel “The Hanging Judge” involves a murder trial.
  In the United States legal system, there are few cases where stakes are as high and pressure is as intense as one involving the death penalty. The daunting question of life or death weighs on the defendant, but also prosecutors, defense lawyers, jurors, and the judge.

  Just ask US District Court Senior Judge Michael A. Ponsor. A decade ago, he oversaw the first death penalty trial in Massachusetts in more than 50 years, in the case of Kristen Gilbert, a veterans’ nurse who faced capital punishment for injecting patients with epinephrine, causing them to have fatal heart attacks.

  A jury in Springfield ultimately spared Gilbert of the death penalty in 2001, choosing to sentence her to life in prison, following a dramatic, five-month trial that Ponsor says helped mold his view of capital punishment.

  And now, with the rare occasion of two death penalty cases playing out in federal court in Massachusetts, Ponsor has penned a novel that provides an insider’s view of the intense legal process we can expect in the trials of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the alleged Boston Marathon bomber, and Gary Lee Sampson, an admitted serial killer who carjacked his victims.

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  “The Hanging Judge” is a fictional account of a death penalty trial involving a gangland murder, prosecutorial malfeasance, and a thoughtful judge struggling to make sure justice is carried out. Ponsor spoke to the Globe about the story line and his experience in such a high-profile trial.

  Q. Tell us a bit about your book’s story line and how it plays into the larger picture of an actual death penalty trial.

  A. The precipitating event is a drive-by shooting that takes the life of the target, a drug dealer, as well as an unlucky bystander, a hockey mom volunteering at a nearby street clinic. Powerful evidence quickly points to the defendant, an African-American ex-convict named Clarence “Moon” Hudson, as the shooter, and the politically ambitious US Attorney shifts the case to federal court so he can seek the death penalty. The central figure is the presiding judge, David Norcross, a decent, reasonably intelligent man, who is determined to give Hudson a “truly fair” trial.

  Q. What about the Gilbert case caused you to write a fictional account of a death penalty trial for your first novel?

  A. The most profound realization I took from Gilbert was that human beings getting together to decide whether someone should be executed, even when they are supervised by a judge, will make mistakes. A legal regime permitting capital punishment comes with a fairly heavy price. I wanted people to know this.

  Q. What do you mean when you say that the death penalty comes with a heavy price?

  A. I mean, first of all, that where there’s a death penalty innocent people will die. Sooner or later — we hope not too often — someone who didn’t commit the crime will be executed. Every religion, every philosophy, every wise person — at least every one I’ve ever heard of — tells us that people are fallible. No religion I know of says that human beings are fallible in everything except in selecting who will face execution, and in that one area they are perfect.

  Q. Are you saying you think a mistake was made in Gilbert? She got a life sentence without parole, after all.

  A. No, I’m not saying that. I’m fairly sure Ms. Gilbert actually did commit the despicable murders she was charged with, and I’m comfortable with the heavy sentence I gave her. Overwhelmingly, thank heaven, people charged in capital crimes are guilty, often obviously guilty.

  On the other hand, plenty of objective evidence suggests that mistakes occur in these trials regularly. Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, roughly 1,300 people have been executed. During the same time, over 140 people have been exonerated.

  ‘A legal regime permitting capital punishment comes with a fairly heavy price. I wanted people to know this.’
  Q. Do you consider “The Hanging Judge” to be an anti-death penalty novel?

  A. Absolutely not. The novel merely says, or tries to say: “Here is how a death penalty trial actually works. Now we can talk.”

  Q. How is the book being received?

  A. “The Hanging Judge,” my agent tells me, has so far sold over 40,000 copies in print and e-book format, pretty good for a first novel. It spent one blessed week on The New York Times bestseller list, and we’re negotiating a contract with my publisher for my next book.

  Perhaps the most gratifying reward I’ve gotten for writing the novel is a letter I received from retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, one of my heroes, who said he “thoroughly enjoyed” the novel and praised it for demonstrating that the “judicial process is not infallible.”

  In my world, this is like getting a letter from the Dalai Lama, and I had to peel myself off the ceiling when I read it.

  Q. What is the significance of the title, “The Hanging Judge”? Your protagonist, Judge David Norcross, seems like a pretty decent man.

  A. I liked the double meaning that the phrase conveys. A “hanging judge” can mean two things: either a judge who hangs people, or a judge who is himself hanging. All judges who preside over death penalty trials are in this fix. They face the possibility of having to sign an execution order, and they also figuratively dangle over the capricious process they are supposed to be supervising.

  Q. One of the subplots in your novel involves two luckless Irishmen, executed in Northampton in 1806. Why did you include their story?

  A. We like to console ourselves that the injustices of the past no longer occur in our country in the 21st century. Yet the hanging of Dominick Daley and James Halligan, two innocent victims of virulent anti-Catholic bigotry in 1806, has its parallels today. The people executed are most often the friendless, targets of prejudice and fear. I had no idea that Catholics were so abhorred in Western Massachusetts two hundred years ago. The defendant in my novel, Clarence “Moon” Hudson, a young African-American man with a criminal record and an intimidating face, shares some of the same vulnerabilities Daley and Halligan suffered. Beyond that, the story of the two courageous Irishmen, who stood on the gallows, declared their innocence, and then stated that they “blamed no one and forgave everyone” deserves to be retold.

  Milton J. Valencia can be reached at MValencia@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MiltonValencia.

• The Big Thrill - http://www.thebigthrill.org/2017/05/the-one-eyed-judge-by-michael-ponsor/

  LATEST BOOKS, LEGAL THRILLERS
  The One-Eyed Judge by Michael Ponsor
  MAY 31, 2017 by ITW 0
  When FBI agents barge into the home of Sidney Cranmer, accusing him of possession of child pornography, the respected literature professor’s life becomes a nightmare. Cranmer insists the illicit material is not his, but the charge appears airtight, and his academic specialty—the works of suspected pedophile Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland—convinces investigators he is lying.

  The Honorable David S. Norcross regrets not recusing himself from this routine criminal case, especially considering that his girlfriend, Claire Lindemann, knows the defendant and is convinced he is innocent. Soon, she will take matters into her own hands. Meanwhile, a family tragedy leaves Norcross responsible for his two young nieces, and a separate investigation identifies a murderous predator still at large. Now Judge Norcross must navigate through a maelstrom of deceit, revenge, and unspeakable evil looming over everyone he loves.

  THE ONE-EYED JUDGE author, Michael Ponsor, chatted with The Big Thrill about latest legal thriller:

  What do you hope readers will take away from this book?

  First, I hope that readers of THE ONE-EYED JUDGE will relish the pleasure of good story. The characters are drawn to be vivid and engaging, and the plot is crafted to be compelling. The central goal is a good, absorbing read. Second, almost as important, the reader should take away increased familiarity with the American criminal process as it actually unfolds, with an in-the-trenches perspective coming from the major players—the lawyers, the law enforcement officers, the clerks, the witnesses, the defendant, and particularly the judge.

  How does this book make a contribution to the genre?

  Many books address crime and the courtroom. My books (The Hanging Judge and THE ONE-EYED JUDGE) aim to provide a uniquely fine-grained view of criminal justice from the inside, based on my 33 years as a federal judge. This world has been my life. My intent is to bring readers onto the bench and put the robe on them, let them feel what it is like to sit up in that big black chair with a person’s life on the line, making the difficult decisions. No other novel in this genre—at least none that I’ve encountered—offers this kind of intimate experience of the emotional climate, the actual feel, of the courtroom.

  Was there anything new you discovered, or surprised you, as you wrote this book?

  A novel is as much a journey for the writer as the reader. As I’ve written fiction about the American judicial system, I’ve re-discovered for myself how very difficult and precious that system is, and how hard it tries, however clumsily, to do the right thing. Meting out justice is a very human endeavor. No system that I know of, either in the history of humanity for the past 10,000 years, or on the whole of the globe today, works so ardently to be fair, to allow people to be heard, and to dispense justice without regard to status, as our American system. Sometimes the system fails, but more often it actually succeeds. There is real nobility, and real anguish, in that effort.

  No spoilers, but what can you tell us about your book that we won’t find in the jacket copy or the PR material?

  Two themes run through the book that are not highlighted on the jacket or in the promotional material. The first is the sometimes dark power of sex. This side of the human character draws its force out of the uncontrolled recesses of the unconscious—a wellspring of love and creativity and also, sometimes, of terrible evil. The second, connected theme relates to children and how daunting the task is to raise them and keep them safe in a world bristling with threats and destructive influences. The struggle of the central character, Judge David Norcross, to face this challenge in the context of his own life is one of the engines of the plot.

  What authors or books have influenced your career as a writer, and why?

  I admire writers who can convey complexity in a clear accessible style. These include authors like George Orwell, James Agee, Michael Cunningham, and Ann Patchett. In crime fiction, I particularly admire Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent, which—next to “Call me Ishmael”—took off with my all-time favorite opening line: “This is how I always start.” I absolutely love Dorothy L Sayers’ Peter Wimsey series. John Grisham and Nora Roberts have provided me tutorials in creating solid, satisfying characters and plots. I always enjoy their books. For thrillers laced with laugh-out-loud comedy you can’t beat Carl Hiaasen.

  *****

  Michael Ponsor graduated from Harvard, received a Rhodes Scholarship, and studied for two years at Pembroke College, Oxford. After taking his law degree from Yale and clerking in federal court in Boston, he began his legal career, specializing in criminal defense. He moved to Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1978, where he practiced as a trial attorney in his own firm until his appointment in 1984 as a U.S .magistrate judge in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed him a life-tenured U.S. district judge. From 2000 to 2001, he presided over a five-month death penalty trial, the first in Massachusetts in over fifty years. Judge Ponsor continues to serve as a senior US district judge in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Western Division, with responsibility for federal criminal and civil cases in the four counties of western Massachusetts. THE ONE-EYED JUDGE is his second novel.

• Above the Law - https://abovethelaw.com/2017/12/the-hanging-judge-an-interview-with-judge-michael-ponsor/

  FEDERAL JUDGES
  The Hanging Judge: An Interview With Judge Michael Ponsor
  An interview with a very rare individual: a federal judge and New York Times bestselling novelist.
  By DAVID LAT
  Dec 14, 2017 at 7:12 PM
  54
  SHARES
  Looking for some stocking stuffers for the lawyer or law student in your life? I have two items to add to the holiday gift guides we’ve previously published: two superb legal thrillers, The Hanging Judge and The One-Eyed Judge, by Michael Ponsor.

  That name rings a bell — do you mean Judge Michael Ponsor? Yes, that’s right. Within the legal profession, Judge Ponsor is best known as a Senior United States District Judge for the District of Massachusetts, appointed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton. But Judge Ponsor — a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, as well as a former Rhodes Scholar — is a man of many talents. How many federal judges are also critically acclaimed, New York Times-bestselling authors?

  A few months ago, right before I went out on paternity leave, I interviewed Judge Ponsor about his fascinating authorial and judicial careers. After briefly chatting about the similarities in our backgrounds — two alma maters in common, plus the whole “lawyer turned novelist” thing — we plunged into the substance of our conversation.

  Here’s the (lightly edited and condensed) first part of our chat, centered on The Hanging Judge and Judge Ponsor’s writing career. The second part, focused on The One-Eyed Judge and Judge Ponsor’s legal career, will follow next week. Enjoy!

  DL: Congratulations on your success as both a judge and an author. Your legal career, while long and distinguished, is fairly straightforward. Can you give us an overview of your career as a writer?

  MP: I’ve been trying to write fiction since my 20s. I wrote a complete novel when I was at Oxford called When the Bough Breaks, about a boy growing up in the Midwest. It was picked up by New York literary agency, and they were confident the book would find a publisher. I was ambivalent about law school so I thought, “Great! I won’t have to go! I’ll be a famous novelist instead.” But there were no takers. Off I went to law school.

  Then, in 1973, when I was still in law school, I had a short story published in Redbook. I got paid $1,500 for it, a sizable sum at the time. I was still ambivalent about being a lawyer, so this time I thought, “Great! I can be a famous short story writer instead.”

  Again, it didn’t work out. Little did I know that the 1973 Redbook story would comprise my entire published literary oeuvre for the next forty years, until The Hanging Judge came out in 2013. My main problem was that I wanted to be a writer but didn’t have anything terribly profound to write about.

  DL: And that’s where your legal and judicial career comes in….

  MP: What boosted me into a higher level of focus as a writer was presiding over a death penalty case in 2000 called United States v. Gilbert, involving a nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital charged with killing four of her patients and attempting to kill three others.

  The trial went on for more than five months. Massachusetts doesn’t have a state death penalty, and this was the first death penalty case in almost 50 years. It was a harrowing experience – morally, to ensure a fair process where the stakes were so high, and emotionally, knowing that an evidentiary ruling of mine might either let a killer go free or send a woman to her death after a botched trial.

  In the end, the jury found Kristen Gilbert guilty but declined to impose the death penalty. She didn’t appeal – perhaps because, under Supreme Court precedent, had she “won” on appeal and gotten a new trial, she could have faced the death penalty again.

  I wrote an op-ed piece for the Boston Globe about the experience of presiding over a death-penalty trial. I tried not to make judgments and focused on describing the objective challenges – here’s a steep hill, here’s a swamp, here lie dragons. My core point – not especially surprising, but powerfully hammered home for me by the trial – was that if we’re going to have a death penalty, then we must acknowledge the reality that, on occasion, an innocent person will be executed. The process is brutally human, and human beings make mistakes.

  The Globe piece turned out well, and people told me how helpful it was to read. But I also felt that in such a short piece I wasn’t fully able to capture the atmosphere of an actual death-penalty trial. Ethical restrictions also prevented me from going into much detail about my real trial. So I thought I’d pick up fiction again and try to write a novel about the experience from the viewpoint of a fictional judge, whom I named David Norcross.

  DL: At the time, though, you were still a very busy, very real federal judge…

  MP: Yes, I was still working full-time as an active district judge. I would set aside my Saturdays and Sundays, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., to write. I’d basically nail my door shut to block out distractions. I have a poster on my bulletin board with a picture of a dog on it, saying that to write successfully you have to give yourself the same command you give your dog: SIT! STAY!

  DL: And how long did that process take, from starting to write the novel to the final publication of The Hanging Judge?

  MP: About seven years – to write, and re-write, and re-write the manuscript, to find an agent, to find a publisher, and to see the book published.

  It was a humbling experience. If you’re a federal judge, you’re used to having people defer to you. You enter the courtroom, and everyone stands up. You tell a little joke, and everyone has a hearty chuckle. Publishing fiction is a good antidote to that: you get treated like dirt!

  My agent from years ago was no longer in the business, so I had to find a new agent. I got shot down by one literary agency after another. On one call to an agency, I got a young woman who sounded like she was about 18, and she was talking to me, like, “So Mike [munching noise], we’re looking at your book [munching noise]….” And it dawned on me: she’s eating a sandwich while she’s talking to me! I wanted to say: “I’m a federal judge, for God’s sake! Can you at least put your damned tuna fish down!” But I kept quiet, not wanting to be pegged as a pill. In the end, they didn’t take the book anyway.

  DL: So how did you eventually find an agent?

  MP: It took about a year. My first manuscript was way too long – over 180,000 words. One agency told me that if I could get it down to around 100,000 words, they’d take another look. So I cut out tons of material, including a couple much beloved characters, got my draft down to 115,000 words or so, and sent it around again. Eventually it got picked up by Robin Straus, a wonderful agent. She’s been fantastic.

  DL: And then what about finding a publisher?

  MP: Robin really liked the manuscript and was optimistic at the start of the process. But it took a little while; we had a number of near misses, nice letters from publishers that praised the book but passed.

  After about a year, it was picked up by Open Road, a new publishing house launched by Jane Friedman, former CEO of Harper Collins and others. Open Road published The Hanging Judge in December 2013. They have given the book terrific support.

  DL: And it took off from there – including hitting the New York Times bestseller list, and selling more than 40,000 copies.

  MP: Actually, more than 54,000 copies as of September 30, and it’s still selling. Everyone at Open Road has been very pleased how it has done, especially for a first novel. I’m over the moon, of course.

  DL: How would you explain the book’s success? Aside from its literary merit, of course – there are many excellent books that fail to achieve bestseller status.

  MP: The book has, I think, one unique strength. It takes the reader right up onto the bench, where I’ve been for more than thirty years, and lets the reader see and feel what I’ve seen and felt as a judge, making tough decisions in a very intense environment. Anyone intending to practice law, to clerk, to litigate, or to get onto the bench is bound to find this viewpoint compelling. I gave the books to a district-court colleague, who liked them and passed them onto to his wife, so she could finally get a clear idea of how he spends his days.

  Apart from the book’s inherent merits, such as they are, The Hanging Judge had some great blurbs from writer friends of mine, including Tracy Kidder, Anita Shreve, Jonathan Harr, Joe Kanon, John Katzenbach, Elinor Lipman, and the late Joe McGuiness. This support helped a lot. I also received some strong reviews, including a great review in the Washington Post and a starred review in Kirkus.

  Finally, I did many events – more than 60 readings in 10 months. I spoke at libraries, law schools, colleges, bar associations, and courts. I got lots of invitations. People were very interested in the book as a window into our justice system, viewed through the eyes of someone who’d been, so to speak, in the trenches.

  DL: And I believe Justice John Paul Stevens was a fan?

  MP: Justice Stevens sent me a letter that I think I’ll be buried with. With his permission, we used part of his comments as a blurb for the back of my new book, The One-Eyed Judge.

  Judge Michael Ponsor (via Open Road Media)
  DL: So you were doing all of these events alongside your rather demanding day job….

  MP: Yes – it was very intense. I took senior status in 2011 and that helped, but not very much.

  Springfield has only one active federal judgeship, for an area encompassing four counties, 100 cities and towns, and 850,000 people. Because the Senate didn’t confirm my successor until the summer of 2014, some three years later, I couldn’t really cut my docket upon going senior in 2011.

  I was effectively still a full-time judge when the book came out in late 2013. I was handling complex civil cases, criminal cases with Speedy Trial Act issues, TROs, and… a lot of book readings.

  DL: Sounds rather stressful. Did you enjoy it?

  MP: Absolutely. I’m an extrovert. I like pulling into a library parking lot, walking in with my box of books, not knowing anyone, meeting new people, and talking about my books. The people I meet at readings are interesting, generous, and fun. The crowds would vary in size – sometimes large groups in packed rooms, and sometimes a handful of people.

  I remember one event at the Barnes & Noble in Framingham. It was an evening in December or January, with terrible winter weather. The bookstore was nestled somewhere deep within a nest of malls. My GPS croaked on me, and I got seriously lost. I showed up at one minute before seven, for a seven o’clock reading, with my bladder as big as a beach ball. Three people showed up: a former law clerk of mine, an author trying to pitch me on her self-published book, and a homeless guy trying to get out the weather.

  The homeless man had very interesting questions – not many teeth, but many good questions. I gave him a free copy of the book.

  DL: How long did it take for The Hanging Judge to become a bestseller?

  MP: It hit the New York Times bestseller list in May 2014. I still have that page from the Book Review tacked to my bulletin board.

  DL: The Hanging Judge and The One-Eyed Judge are based in part on your experiences as a sitting judge. Do you have any concerns about the interaction between your work as a judge and an author? Are you worried that litigants might read your books and claim some bias on your part, or that lawyers might read them and think you’re writing about them?

  MP: I was a little anxious about this at first, but it has not turned out to be a problem. The plot of The Hanging Judge is nothing like the plot of my actual death-penalty case. The book starts with a drive-by shooting in Holyoke, where the murdered target is a drug dealer but a stray bullet also kills a young hockey mom. They catch the person they think is the shooter, and the ambitious U.S. attorney charges it as a RICO case in order to invoke the death penalty. It’s nothing like my case of a nurse in a VA hospital.

  The main concern I had before the book came out was that I didn’t want to look like a blockhead – for example, by having a reviewer quote a poorly written passage I should have worked on more. I didn’t want to put myself or my court in an embarrassing position.

  To try to head this off, I sent the book out to five of my colleagues, including my chief judge, and asked them to read it. They all got back to me and said that they liked it. This was a good way of making sure I wasn’t wandering into any area that would make me look clownish or unethical.

  DL: Some readers might see similarities between you and your protagonist, Judge Norcross….

  MP: Readers have said they see parallels. One colleague told me, “Come on, Michael – Judge Norcross is really you!” I told her, “Not true. Judge Norcross comes from Wisconsin. I come from Minnesota. They’re totally different!”

  Jokes aside, there are significant differences between Judge Norcross and Judge Ponsor. Judge Norcross has much less experience on the bench when he gets his death-penalty case, and he makes mistakes that I wouldn’t make. He’s greener than I am. In The One-Eyed Judge, he makes a decision not to recuse himself in a case where in real life I certainly would have recused.

  ********************

  We’ll learn more about The One-Eyed Judge — as well as Judge Ponsor’s writing process, the differences between fiction and judicial writing, and advice for aspiring federal judges — next week. For now, thanks to Judge Ponsor for his time and insights!

  The Hanging Judge [Amazon (affiliate link)]
  The One-Eyed Judge [Amazon (affiliate link)]

  DBL square headshotDavid Lat is editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, as well as the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.

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Print Marked Items
The One-Eyed Judge
Karen Keefe
Booklist.
113.17 (May 1, 2017): p26.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
The One-Eyed Judge. By Michael Ponsor. June 2017.450p. Open Road, paper, $17.99 (9781504035255); ebook,
$14.99 (9781504035132).
In his second David Norcross novel (following The Hanging Judge, 2013), U.S. District Court Judge Ponsor
successfully explores both the inner workings of the federal court system and widower Norcross' struggle to
open himself again to the vulnerability of being a husband and father. Amherst professor Sidney Cranmer is
accused of possession of child pornography. Many of his colleagues, including Claire Lindemann, believe
in his innocence. Claire is dating Norcross, who will be presiding over the case. Most of David's domestic
attention, however, is diverted to his two nieces, whose parents were in a serious plane accident. Ponsor
does an excellent job demonstrating how long it takes a case to get to trial and the many rulings that must be
made along the way. In fact, the back-and-forth of pretrial motions ends up being as compelling as the
actual determination of Cranmer's guilt or innocence. This is a great example of a small-press series that
could develop a strong following with word-of-mouth support from librarians.--Karen Keefe
Keefe, Karen
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Keefe, Karen. "The One-Eyed Judge." Booklist, 1 May 2017, p. 26. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495034923/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=78e52e52.
Accessed 21 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495034923
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Ponsor, Michael: THE HANGING JUDGE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Dec. 1, 2013):
COPYRIGHT 2013 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Ponsor, Michael THE HANGING JUDGE OpenRoad Integrated Media (Adult Fiction) $16.99 12, 3 ISBN:
978-1-4804-4194-1
A legal thriller written by, and from the viewpoint of, a federal judge. A drive-by shooting in the central
Massachusetts city of Holyoke kills two people, including a Puerto Rican man and a middle-class white
woman. The state has no death penalty, but the case is moved to federal court, where a death sentence is
possible. A black man, Moon Hudson, stands accused of capital murder and drug dealing. Innocent or
guilty, Hudson is no angel, and some in his neighborhood want him to get the lethal injection that the
prosecutor is looking for. The Honorable David Norcross must preside over the trial in which a pair of
smart, determined attorneys face off against each other. Can Norcross ensure a fair trial and prevent a
circus? Woven into the tale is the true story of two Massachusetts men hanged in 1806 on the basis of
spurious testimony. As Irish Catholics, the accused didn't stand a chance--they truly faced a hanging judge.
But Judge Norcross is nothing like that, being portrayed as a thoroughly professional judge and a likable
widower whose idea of profanity is saying "Criminey!" He falls in love with a woman, providing a subplot
that threatens to ruin the trial but otherwise highlights the judge's humanity. Meanwhile, there are plenty of
surprises to keep readers turning pages. Ponsor gives readers a unique look into the workings of a
courtroom. But more than that, he demonstrates a feel for how ordinary families are affected by the legal
system. Ponsor's debut would make a great movie.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Ponsor, Michael: THE HANGING JUDGE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2013. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A350763200/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7e991d3a.
Accessed 21 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A350763200
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The One-Eyed Judge
Publishers Weekly.
264.14 (Apr. 3, 2017): p56.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The One-Eyed Judge
Michael Ponsor. Open Road, $17.99 trade paper (450p) ISBN 978-1-5040-3525-5
At the start of Ponsor's melodramatic sequel to 2013's The Hanging judge, the FBI busts Amherst College
professor Sidney Cranmer after he accepts delivery of a DVD containing child pornography. Cranmer has
written a biography of Charles L. Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) in which he argues that the author of Alice
in Wonderland was not a pedophile. Federal judge David Norcross, known as the one-eyed judge for
injuries he suffered after being shot in the face, handles the case, despite his witnessing the aftermath of
Cranmer's arrest and his being involved with Amherst professor Claire Lindemann, who is familiar with the
accused. Meanwhile, he gets some devastating news concerning his brother, the U.S. commerce secretary.
The subplot involving David's efforts to help his brother's children distracts from the main story line. As
Ponsor warns in an author's note, the subject matter is highly upsetting; some readers who soldier past the
graphic descriptions of abused children may not feel the effort was worthwhile. Agent: Robin Straus, Robin
Straus Agency. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The One-Eyed Judge." Publishers Weekly, 3 Apr. 2017, p. 56. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A489813709/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=750b7a00.
Accessed 21 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A489813709
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The Hanging Judge
Stacy Alesi
Booklist.
110.6 (Nov. 15, 2013): p24.
COPYRIGHT 2013 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
The Hanging Judge. By Michael Ponsor. Dec. 2013. Open Road, paper, $16.99 (9781480441941); e-book
(9781480441903).
This gripping legal thriller is told from the unique perspective of the federal court judge presiding over the
first death penalty case in Massachusetts in more than 50 years. The moral issue here is highlighted by an
occasional chapter dedicated to the telling of the true story of an 1806 hanging, the result of a verdict that
was reversed 200 years later. A drive-by shooting is at the root of the present-day case. A Hispanic drug
dealer and an innocent bystander are killed, and a sharp cop ends up nabbing the getaway driver, who gives
the name, Moon Hudson, as the shooter. Moon is a family man, married with a baby, but he also has a past
that the jury will never hear about. The state's case hinges on the word of a gangbanger who has agreed to
testify in exchange for a lighter sentence, and Moon's life hangs in the balance. The death penalty case is
compelling, but Ponsor fails to fully develop his characters, leaving a bit of an emotional void. Richard
North Patterson tackled a similar subject in Conviction (2005) with considerably more passion, but perhaps
the lesser passion here stems from Ponsor's decision to use an impartial judge as his narrator.--Stacy Alesi
Alesi, Stacy
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Alesi, Stacy. "The Hanging Judge." Booklist, 15 Nov. 2013, p. 24. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A352491526/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9196a5b6.
Accessed 21 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A352491526
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The Hanging Judge
Publishers Weekly.
260.41 (Oct. 14, 2013): p40.
COPYRIGHT 2013 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Hanging Judge
Michael Ponsor. Open Road (www.openroadmedia.com), $14.99 trade paper (376p) ISBN 978-1-4804-
4194-1
Despite the author's credentials--Ponsor is a sitting federal judge who in 2000 presided over Massachusetts's
first capital case in more than 50 years--his attempt to draw on his professional experience for a legal
thriller fails flat. Judge David Norcross, who has the requisite tragic personal backstory (a dead wife), is
assigned the case of twice-convicted drug dealer Clarence Hudson, who gunned down another drug dealer
and a nurse caught in the cross fire in a rundown Holyoke, Mass., neighborhood. A political decision to
charge Hudson federally exposes him to the death penalty. That the case is problematic early on undercuts
some of the tension from the trial scenes, while a gratuitous act of violence near the end undermines what
hitherto has been a realistic portrayal of a judge's life. Unconvincing interludes with a potential romantic
partner don't help ("An enormous moment was rolling toward him, and it was hoisting David's innards like
a swelling wave"). Agent: Robin Straus, Robin Straus Agency. (Dec.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Hanging Judge." Publishers Weekly, 14 Oct. 2013, p. 40. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A349606679/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=90c32545.
Accessed 21 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A349606679

Keefe, Karen. "The One-Eyed Judge." Booklist, 1 May 2017, p. 26. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495034923/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 21 Dec. 2017. "Ponsor, Michael: THE HANGING JUDGE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2013. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A350763200/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 21 Dec. 2017. "The One-Eyed Judge." Publishers Weekly, 3 Apr. 2017, p. 56. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A489813709/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 21 Dec. 2017. Alesi, Stacy. "The Hanging Judge." Booklist, 15 Nov. 2013, p. 24. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A352491526/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 21 Dec. 2017. "The Hanging Judge." Publishers Weekly, 14 Oct. 2013, p. 40. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A349606679/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 21 Dec. 2017.

• Washington Post
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-hanging-judge-by-michael-ponsor/2013/12/29/d1329c52-6bfd-11e3-b405-7e360f7e9fd2_story.html?utm_term=.686a8e95bc70
  Word count: 857

  Books
  ‘The Hanging Judge,’ by Michael Ponsor
  By Dennis Drabelle December 29, 2013
  Hear ye, hear ye. All draw near for a novelty: a mystery whose main character is a federal district judge, written by one of the tribe. Michael Ponsor was appointed to the bench in western Massachusetts in 1994 by President Bill Clinton. “The Hanging Judge” is his first novel, and Ponsor is a talent to watch.

  The author’s counterpart in “The Hanging Judge” is David Norcross, a hard-working jurist with serious qualms about the death penalty. And wouldn’t you know it — Norcross gets assigned to a case in which federal prosecutors, under pressure from their superiors at the Justice Department in Washington, are determined not just to convict the accused, but to put him to death.

  He is Clarence “Moon” Hudson, a man with a past that includes gang membership and drug dealing. Now happily married, Hudson seems the very model of a reformed ex-con. So when he comes under suspicion for a gang killing and the police respond by breaking into his house and terrorizing him and his wife, the reader recoils — nobody should be treated this way, but Moon in particular ought to get a break. The guy informing on him is the not-so-trustworthy gang member who drove the getaway car, and the guy’s uncle would otherwise be the prime suspect, but the feds throw the book at Moon anyway.

  As the case lands on his docket, Judge Norcross, a widower, has the delightful experience of being fixed up on a blind date that clicks. He and a sexy divorcee named Claire take endearingly awkward steps toward a relationship, and not even an egregious misstep — Claire thoughtlessly shares a confidence about the case with a mutual friend who leaks it — can derail their love affair.

  Good for Norcross because the trial turns out to be an ordeal, for him and everybody else caught up in it. Ponsor excels at conveying the nuances that can underlie judicial rulings and legal strategies. In this case, for example, the defense has to consider the potential harm from disclosing Moon’s criminal record (he served time for his drug dealing). The rule is that the prosecution can’t introduce or even refer to a criminal defendant’s conviction because it might prejudice the jury against him.

  “The Hanging Judge” by Michael Ponsor. (Open Road)
  But there is an exception: If the defendant takes the stand, putting his veracity on the line, the prosecution is entitled to use the “prior” to discredit him. This puts Moon in an agonizing dilemma. To keep his past from the jury, he must decline to speak up for himself, but he can’t stand the idea of having his fate decided without a word from him.

  As for the judge, while giving Claire an after-hours tour of the courtroom, he complains succinctly about the burdens of a capital case: “In my whole life, I’ve never done anything this hard. . . . If I exclude testimony incorrectly, the government may be unfairly pinched, and a killer could go free. But if I mistakenly admit evidence or instruct the jury incorrectly, this human being here could die of a botched trial.”

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  Let the record reflect a criticism or two. A subplot involving a crazy old lady who keeps bombarding the judge with wacko-bird petitions and interrupting his trials strikes me as one complication too many. (On the other hand, a running account of a miscarriage of justice in the same region during the early 19th century is both unobtrusive and fascinating.) And after the jury delivers its verdict, Moon’s comment to his wife borders on authorial cheating. It’s designed to throw the reader off the scent, but it’s so cunningly worded as to have the opposite effect. On the whole, though, “The Hanging Judge” is that rarity: a story that grips the reader even as it teaches some fine points of criminal procedure.

  Postscript: The Washington area is so replete with lawyers, some of whom may be toying with writing legal thrillers themselves, that it seems appropriate to add a quote from Judge Ponsor on what those wannabes might be letting themselves in for: “I recently wrote an 80-page opinion. . . . It took me about five full days to do it properly, which is a very long time for a trial judge. . . . On the other hand, eighty pages of publishable fiction, say a novella, would require two or three months of concentrated effort at least, probably more, for the piece to be done even marginally well.”

  Drabelle is the mysteries editor of Book World.

  THE HANGING JUDGE

  By Michael Ponsor

  Open Road. 478 pp. Paperback, $16.99

  We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

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