Women Who Kill Men: California Courts, Gender, and the Press

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We owe a great deal to Keith Pacholl of the University of West Georgia. Keith read the entire manuscript and made invaluable suggestions. Karen Lystra of California State University, Fullerton, read the manuscript with an eye to the meaning of love letters in trials and American culture. Her insights were critical and incorporated into the manuscript. We thank our three outside readers for their significant suggestions. Clare McKanna Jr. made a variety of insightful comments, and his suggested changes are now in the text. Our anonymous readers made extensive suggestions for changes to bring the manuscript together as a book. We worked for months putting the suggestions into the text and making important distinctions for certain cases. The two readers substantially focused our work and arbitrated a real difference of opinion between the authors. As she has in the past, Professor Farrington clearly saw the holes her coauthor had failed to visualize. We thank one of the inspirational leaders in education, Ronald Heusser of Santiago High School in Garden Grove, California . On Saturday, February 9, 2008, Santiago High School lost a good friend and colleague, Ronald Vincent Heusser. Heusser opened the school in 1961 as a boys’ physical education teacher and the athletic director, and served in various positions throughout his tenure at Santiago, most notably X AC K N OW L E D G M E N TS as the asb activities director and the girls’ basketball coach. He was instrumental in Brenda’s leadership role at the high school and a regular coach encouraging her along the way in higher education. “Coach H” truly lived every day of his life with passion and purpose—to make a difference in the lives of young people. He officially retired in 1996, although he continued to dedicate himself wholeheartedly to the students of Santiago High School throughout his retirement. On February 16 we joined a thousand mourners celebrating the life of a man who had influenced many, including the authors of this book. We thank our many students whom we have engaged in discourse regarding this project. In particular, we thank Heather Allen; Mary Brisseau; Amy Green; Ryan Aaron Hernandez; Megan Leahy; Terence “Bob” Przeklasa; Richard Robledo; Heidi Sherman; Albert Ybarra; Martin Chavez; Lori Branson; Shannon Gerlach; Stephen Gomez; Maria Manzotti; Shawn Nelsen; Jennifer Pinera; Rene Radillo; Linda Schmidt; Stephen Tipton, usmc; Kimberly Hamquist; Neda Gahvavehchi; Kevin Hare; Michael Hascher; Anne Herrick; Quyen Huynh; Mattison Laventure; Fernando Maciel, usmc; Benjamin Pham; Ferdus Serhal; Sirin Sirirat; Michael Whitesell; Richard Madrid, usn; Lonnie Wilson, usasf; Tiffany Dalpe; Marcus Flores, usmc; Samuel Lee; Michelle Maxon; Andres Mejia; Michelle Oropeza; Gary Smith; Steven Thomas; Julie Frances Abutal; Barbara Brady; Jennifer Mizzell; Charles Sedey; Dale Sawyers, usn; Michael Seager; Karen Rosa; Ryan Woods; Brenda Bitgood ; Michelle Bean; Lori Iacovelli; Scott Kesilis; Neal Lynch; Carolyn Stull, usn; Timothy Finch; Larry Natividad; Elaine Nelson; Miguel Garcia; Thomas Bojorquez; Thomas DeMartino ; Jennifer C. Pinera; Norma Esparza; Dean Cole; Charlene AC K N OW L E D G M E N TS xi Riggins; Christopher Small; Michael Woods; Susan Meier; Melissa Miller; Austin Yuen; Riley Alegre; Adrian Donaldson ; George Stantis; Huong Pham; Nancy Diep; Catherine Bilachone; Jamie Haugh; Andrew Newkirk; Michael Vencill; Robert Tardiff; Patrick Brown; Richard McFarlane; Scott Behen ; Robert Miller; Caroline Owen; Jaime Dietz-Velez; Diana Pena-Bisnett; Eduardo Barrios; Lamon Starks, usmc; Kenneth McMullen, usn; and Jeffrey Kvech. Finally, we thank Elizabeth Demers, who thought so much of this project that she issued an advance contract. After she moved on to another press, Heather Lundine took the wheel and steered this manuscript into book form. We thank Heather for her patience with us. We take responsibility for any errors of fact that reside in these pages and the interpretations of events and their meanings. WOMEN WHO KILL MEN ...