For many Americans, anything having to do with the law or the courts seems beyond understanding. But now a retired Tallahassee judge believes movies and novels can help explain the law in ways that everyone can comprehend.
The judge himself happens to be an authentic part of Florida history. Terry Lewis was a Second Judicial Circuit judge when the Bush v Gore election in 2000 put Tallahassee on the national map. Lewis oversaw the controversial recount and thus cemented his place in the state archives. But the former judge also has a very creative and playful aspect. He's penned five legal thrillers since leaving the bench in 2019. He also has been teaching other judges.
"I worked up a course, which has been called 'Perceptions of Justice: The Art of Judging,' which is the subtitle. And I included film clips as well as short stories, because people got to read a lot of stuff that's not that helpful. And I taught a course for county judges called 'Philosophy of Justice,' which is kind of similar."
Lewis said it suddenly came to him those courses could form the basis of book to reach more people, especially the general public. It was a project he sidelined for a bit, but then revisited.
"I put it aside, but in 2024, I took it back up again because of what I thought was happening to the rule of law and the idea of fairness, the way things were going. And I said, I think we need to get as a society back to this idea of what we think is fair? That's a good way to look at public policies of any kind."
Similar to the earlier judges' course, Lewis entitled his new book: "Perceptions of Justice: Law, Literature and Film." It has no fancy legal language, few references to case law and lots of lessons from popular culture on how the law, justice and fairness are portrayed in fiction versus real life. For example, in the novel and movie "The Ox Bow Incident," does the end - punishing what everyone is convinced is the bad guy - justify the means, namely an illegal lynching?
"There's always a tension between that in my opinion. The closer it is to me, the more I want a just result, one that I think is just. And the more objective, the more you get back, the more you say, 'as long as we have a fair process.' And as soon as we abandon that, we have a problem."
There are also great legal tutorials contained in "The Godfather," "My Cousin Vinny" and many more well-known stories. Lewis also tosses in some opinions from respected thinkers like Plato, John Locke and Immanuel Kant. But there are also plenty of examples from Lewis's own case files. One involves two teenage gangs in Tallahassee. Not long after Florida passes its so-called "Stand Your Ground" law, the two factions start trading gunfire one tragic evening. A 15-year old is killed. Based on the new law, Lewis felt he had no choice but to deny some defendants' motions to dismiss, while affirming others. But he felt his rulings were by no means satisfactory. He included those criticisms in the filings, but still followed what the new law required.
"I've always looked at my judicial philosophy as 'you've got your lane.' Now you have the ability to express your concerns about why this is not a good idea and all the problems that I saw with that law. And as I note in the book, the legislature could have changed it and they did. But they made it worse!"
Former Second Judicial Circuit Judge Terry Lewis's new book: "Perceptions of Justice, Law, Literature and Film" will get a formal rollout the evening of September 9th at 6:30 in Midtown Reader.
