The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America’s First Sensational Murder Mystery

By Paul Collins | Crown Publishers | $26 | 289 pages | 2013

In 1800 Levi Weeks was tried at New York City Hall on Wall Street for murdering Elma Sands three days before Christmas 1799. The prosecutor’s theory was that Weeks strangled her, then dumped her in a well. This excellent book takes the reader through background and trial and acquittal. It was the first American trial with a verbatim transcript, thanks to a court clerk adept at shorthand.

John Knight Shields served on our Supreme Court from his election in 1902 until his resignation in 1913. He became chief justice in 1910.

He was author of the majority opinion in Cooper v. State, 123 Tenn. 37, 138 S.W. 826 (1910). That case covered the notorious shootout in downtown Nashville where Edward Ward Carmack ended up dead.

See my Journal column in the November/December 1994 issue.

The Making of America’s Greatest President

By Chris DeRose | Threshold Editions | $26 | 335 pages | 2013

Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln served a single term in the United States House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849. Little has been written about this part of his legal career. Consequently I recommend that you purchase and read Mr. DeRose’s book.

You will find examples of Lincoln’s oratory. It is also interesting to learn about his colleagues in the Capitol, including former President John Quincy Adams and Kentuckian Henry Clay.

My guess is that the civil procedure most important to plaintiff clients is least known to their lawyers. So grab a copy of Tennessee Rule 69. You need not bother with Federal Rule 69; federal courts use state procedure.

I. Early Life

William James Harbison was born at Columbia in Maury County on Sept. 11, 1923. He was high school valedictorian. After he had enrolled at Vanderbilt, his undergraduate education was interrupted by the Second World War. Soldier Harbison served in Europe, returning to college in 1946.

Death is inevitable, and sometimes it happens while a lawsuit is pending. What can we do to keep the action alive?

Black’s Ninth defines “qui tam” as “an action brought under a statute that allows a private person to sue for a penalty, part of which the government … shall receive.” The words are Latin for “who as well.”

The best Tennessee example is our False Claims Act, codified at Tenn. Code Ann. §§4-18-101–108. Categories of false claims covered are listed in §103. The heart of the law is §4-18-104(d)(3), which deserves quotation.

By R. Kent Newmyer | Cambridge University Press | $28.99 | 226 pages | 2012

Much has been written about Aaron Burr’s 1807 trial in Richmond (including my July 2003 column in the Journal). Burr was charged with treason for allegedly leading an expedition to establish a separate government in the lands west of the Appalachians. Professor Newmyer’s softbound volume may provide the most details of procedure and evidence. If you are up to intense concentration, I recommend that you read this book.

Our own Andy Johnson missed conviction by one vote in his Senate trial. How did that come about?

President Johnson had a fractious relationship with radical Republicans in Congress. Heated exchanges reached the boiling point under the Tenure of Office Act. It forbade the president from firing certain cabinet members without Senate consent. Johnson unilaterally fired Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton on Feb. 1, 1868.

The Civil War was over. Lee had surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. Lincoln’s life had ended at the hand of an assassin. But another event occurred in that fateful month that has passed almost unnoticed by history.

On April 24, 1865, the side-wheeler steamboat Sultana was docked at Vicksburg, Miss. Its mission was to transport Union soldiers freed from Confederate prisons at Andersonville, Ga., and Cahaba, Ala.

Temporary repair work was being done on one of the boat’s four boilers. When completed, the boilermaker told the captain that the boiler was not safe.