Stories of Killers and Rapists. Based on the Real Practice of a Lawyer – Host of the CrimeCast Podcast

An experienced defender in particularly serious cases guides the reader through the dark side of the criminal process, where the line between guilt and innocence is thinner than a line in a bank statement, and the outcome of a case is sometimes determined by chance and the skill of the attorney.

Mikhail Vladimirovich Davydov is an attorney specializing in particularly serious criminal cases, host of the CrimeCast criminal podcast, President of the Altai branch of the Union of Lawyers of Russia, and Chairman of the Altai regional branch of the All-Russian public movement «Civil Committee of Russia».

«Stories of Killers and Rapists» is not just a collection of courtroom cases, but an attempt to look into the psychology of crime and into the places in the system where truth slips away. The author examines cases that are usually not discussed out loud: an incest charge in a forest house; a teenager’s “confession” extracted under pressure; a murder committed out of belief in witchcraft; the fate of a woman shattered by a single injection in a private clinic.

Each chapter is a story from within: through human tragedies, missteps by the investigation, and legal dead ends—rather than dry formulations of statutes. Sometimes freedom rests on luck, a random inaccuracy in the documents, and on how precisely and on time the attorney manages to act.