Of Law and Literature (and Medicine)

This term, the Supreme Court will consider the case of Moore v. Texas, which takes on the decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last year to uphold the death sentence for the convicted murderer Bobby J. Moore. The court's reasoning? Moore, although mentally challenged, didn't pass Texas's controversial "Lennie Standard," which states that the character of Lennie from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men should be used as a legal touchstone when determining culpability for murder by intellectually disable defendants.

Bob speaks with Adam Liptak, Supreme Court reporter for the New York Times, about the messy confluence of medicine, law, and literature surrounding Moore’s case.

Song:

Sundown by Mark Isham