Law: Verdict on Soviet Justice

An exiled defense lawyer publishes the first major insider's view

For 37 years Dina Kaminskaya was a familiar and respected figure in Moscow's crowded old courthouses and in the vast corridors of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union's Russian Republic. The diminutive (5 ft.) defense lawyer packed more energy and determination into preparing her cases than many an unwary prosecutor, complacent in the knowledge that in the U.S.S.R. the law is stacked against the defense. That was the prosecutors' mistake. Kaminskaya obtained acquittals in more than 100 criminal cases.

A legend among prisoners...

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