Katherine Norgard’s recent book, ​“Hard to Place: A Crime of Alcohol,” is a per­son­al account of the trau­ma expe­ri­enced by her fam­i­ly when her adopt­ed son is charged with a cap­i­tal crime. The book is the author’s sto­ry of fight­ing to save her son after he was sen­tenced to death for the 1989 mur­der of an elder­ly cou­ple in Tuscon, Arizona. At the time of his tri­al, she still did not know that her son, John Eastlack, had been born with fetal alco­hol syn­drome, despite his signs of men­tal ill­ness. The dis­or­der occurs when moth­ers drink dur­ing preg­nan­cy, and it often leaves chil­dren with seri­ous­ly impaired judg­ment. Eastlack’s brain dam­age was dis­cov­ered after he was on death row. Eight years after he was sen­tenced to die, his sen­tence was reversed. He will like­ly spend the rest of his life in prison.

CUNY Law Professor Jeffrey L. Kirchmeier notes, ​“Kathy Norgard’s book gives a unique per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al insight into the dif­fi­cul­ties a fam­i­ly faces when a loved one is charged with a cap­i­tal crime. As a men­tal health pro­fes­sion­al, she uses her per­son­al expe­ri­ences to illus­trate how men­tal dis­abil­i­ties, and fetal alco­hol syn­drome in par­tic­u­lar, relate to our nation’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. As a moth­er, she reveals a love for her fam­i­ly and illus­trates a side of the death penal­ty that is rarely con­sid­ered.”

Norgard, a Tuscon psy­chol­o­gist, now works to pre­vent oth­er chil­dren from being born with fetal alco­hol syn­drome, the lead­ing cause of men­tal retar­da­tion in the United States. Her book con­tains a for­ward by Sister Helen Prejean, who writes: ​“You, the read­er of this book, are priv­i­leged to enter into her soul. Her words are trans­par­ent, unspar­ing of her­self. She takes you to the deep places. She’s brave to write such a book and to share it with the world.” (Recover Resources Press, 2006). See Books.

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