Bookreporter.com - Author Profile: Jilliane Hoffman

Jilliane Hoffman

BIO

Jilliane Hoffman was an Assistant State Attorney in Miami between 1992 and 1996. Until 2001 she was the Regional Legal Advisor for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, advising special agents on complex investigations including narcotics, homicide and organized crime. She lives in Florida. PLEA OF INSANITY is her third novel, following the international bestsellers RETRIBUTION and LAST WITNESS.

INTERVIEW

April 17, 2009

As the bestselling author of the legal thrillers RETRIBUTION, LAST WITNESS and the newly released PLEA OF INSANITY, former state attorney and legal advisor Jilliane Hoffman has put her previous career to good use. In this interview with Bookreporter.com's Kate Ayers, Hoffman recalls what prompted her to write this latest novel about a man suffering from schizophrenia, and elaborates on court procedures and the difficulties of trying cases in which the defendant pleads not guilty by reason of insanity. She also gives insight into some of her main characters’ actions, shares her thoughts on why American legal thrillers are hugely popular overseas, and discusses her next release, THE PORTRAIT PAINTER.

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read PLEA OF INSANITY yet, please proceed with caution, as some plot details are revealed in this interview.

Bookreporter.com: PLEA OF INSANITY is largely about the effects of schizophrenia. But as a former prosecutor yourself, is there an underlying message to your readers regarding the sentencing of a convicted killer to treatment for the disease as opposed to being sentenced to the death penalty, especially when the crime is so brutal? When the crime is so cruel and so vicious, isn’t it hard to find a jury sympathetic to the defense?

Jilliane Hoffman: It is very difficult for a jury to look past the bloodshed and the violence and find a person Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, especially since there is no medical test available to actually verify that a person has a mental illness that caused him to commit murder. As I tried to point out, a deviant psychopath could easily fake the same symptoms as a schizophrenic, if they are clever, educated and persistent enough. But the disease of schizophrenia is very real. It is just as tragic to send a severely mentally ill person to the death chamber for a crime that he or she would never, ever have committed had they been well, as it is to potentially allow a guilty person to go free. Schizophrenia is like cancer, or multiple sclerosis or ALS. It is an actual disease that eats away at the rational wiring of your brain, much like MS destroys the myelin surrounding nerve cells. But because it manifests its symptoms in bizarre, sometimes deranged and sometimes violent behavior rather than through a loss of use of a limb or blurred vision, people are wary of accepting it as the debilitating disease that it is. They still want to believe that we human beings all act out of free will, and as such, anyone who commits a violent act --- even if while acting under a paranoid delusion --- is guilty of committing a crime, much as we hold people responsible if they acted under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

BRC: In your Acknowledgments, you mention that PLEA OF INSANITY was inspired by the story of a close friend with a sibling suffering from schizophrenia. It must have had a profound effect to lead you to write about such a difficult subject. Did you hope to bring about more awareness of this disease by writing this book?

JH: I do. I hope that I can show readers how terrifying and alienating the disease is to those who suffer from it and their family members. Not every schizophrenic is violent, and not every violent person is schizophrenic. Very few, in fact. But it is the headlines that stay with us, and make lasting impressions in our psyche. I hope writing a thriller with some compassionate characters will educate people about the disease and help change some of the damning, frightening stigmas that condemn those who suffer from it.

BRC: Do you think Julia Vacanti sabotaged her own career as a sort of penance, out of spite for a failed love, or a heightened sense of justice?

JH: When Julia has Dr. Barakat on the stand, she looks over at the defense table and sees not just Dr. Marquette sitting there, but her own brother, Andrew, 15 years prior --- alone, petrified, confused. When she begins to grill Barakat and sabotage her own career, it is because she is putting the disease of schizophrenia itself on trial --- for the sake of her brother and as a heightened sense of justice. It is not to spite Rick Bellido.

BRC: It seems apparent that Julia harbors a fear of personally developing schizophrenia since the likelihood increases with the number of family members afflicted with it. Do you think that in a similar circumstance, an attorney could have recused him/herself from the case?

JH: Julia was second-seating the case, so she could step aside at any time. But when she initially agrees to assist, it's a big honor, an opportunity to move her career into another stratosphere. And she initially does not see a conflict, as many moments from her past have been banished from her memory. However, as the investigation continues and she is dragged deeper and deeper into her own past, it becomes too late to walk away. She stays so she can finish the job with Marquette and, ultimately, stand up for her brother.

BRC: Were you ever faced with a defendant pleading not guilty by reason of insanity? If so, how did you handle it?

JH: As I said in PLEA OF INSANITY, an NGI plea is relatively rare. I personally did not try an insanity case.

BRC: Did you ever come before a judge like Leonard Farley? Is it naïve to hope that a person who attains that position can put aside personal prejudices, likes and dislikes?

JH: I have definitely worked with difficult, nasty, ornery, sexist judges. I wouldn't say it is naïve, because there is always hope, and of course, that is the oath they take as judges. But, it is a very powerful position, and in Florida, most judges are elected, and not always the best or the brightest get the vote.

BRC: In your career, did you find that judges were generally fair? Were there any who abused the power their position afforded them?

JH: As I said in the previous answer, not always the best or the brightest are elected to the bench. Some who preside over criminal cases have no criminal experience, so as a prosecutor, it makes appearing before them very difficult because they don't know the law. And, it is a power-saturated position. Your decisions as a judge will impact other people's lives forever. For the most part, I worked with very fair and impartial, brilliant judges who did a great job in a very difficult job day in and day out.

BRC: There are certainly malingerers who come through the system. If one were faking mental defect, do you know how the mental facility they are institutionalized in can determine that and act accordingly?

JH: Once a defendant is committed to a psychiatric facility either to regain competancy to stand trial, or as an NGI plea who hopes to prove that he or she is no longer a danger to himself or others, they come up for periodic evaluations with a psychiatric staff. For competency determinations, these take place every six months. For danger determinations, it is every year to two years. They undergo a thorough mental evaluation, which includes observations by staff who interact with the subject on a daily basis.

But, if they are found NGI and sent to a facility where the staff feels they are malingering, but yet the subject is no longer a danger to himself or others, there is no way to undo the clock and send them back to court or even hold them where they are. There are no two bites at the apple.

BRC: Are the laws in Florida pertaining to a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity more or less stringent than other states?

JH: The states are split on legal tests for insanity. Florida follows the M'Naghton rule, which is the strictest standard.

BRC: So what did Julie see in Dr. Marquette’s eyes when she made prolonged eye contact with him?

JH: She saw sanity. When he smiled at her, she knew he knew exactly what he was doing. And she knew she had been duped.

BRC: I read that PLEA OF INSANITY hit the top of the bestseller list in Germany, and is doing very well in general in Europe. Why did you decide to publish it overseas first? Many American authors enjoy success overseas. Why do you think Europeans are eager to read American legal thrillers?

JH: I think many readers overseas enjoy reading about the American criminal justice system. It is not perfect, by any stretch, but it is the most fair and impartial justice system in the world. We afford our defendants many more rights than other countries do, including the presumption of innocence unless and until the government proves otherwise beyond each and every reasonable doubt. We also have the death penalty here in the States, which is abolished in most of Europe, and considered in many cultures to be barbaric. Add to that intrigue the American crime shows that are broadcast all over Europe, from "CSI" to "Law & Order"; throw in a few serial killers and our justice system looks downright exciting.

BRC: PLEA OF INSANITY takes a departure from your courtroom thrillers that star Miami prosecutor C. J. Townsend, who we first met in RETRIBUTION and saw again in LAST WITNESS. Do you have any plans to bring Townsend back for another harrowing case?

JH: Yes. I am finishing up my fourth novel, THE PORTRAIT PAINTER, which is another stand-alone legal, psychological thriller. When I put the pen down on that in the next few weeks, I will pick it up to finish the C. J. Townsend / Bill Bantling saga.

BRC: Do you plan to write any more novels with Julia Vacanti? Or Judge Leonard Farley? Or even Rick Bellido? I can envision him making problems for Julia in the future, especially if he were to win a political seat.

JH: Great suggestion! Maybe I will do just that! I am thinking of bringing Julia and C. J. into the courtroom together to try a case. Maybe that will happen in the next book. They can confront Bantling together.

BRC: What can you share with our readers about your next book, THE PORTRAIT PAINTER?

JH: I am really, really excited about THE PORTRAIT PAINTER, which I am just finishing up. It’s another legal, psychological suspense thriller set in South Florida about a 13-year-old girl who meets up with the wrong person on the Internet. Her failure to come home from a Friday night out with friends is initially dismissed by the local P. D. as just another disillusioned South Florida teen running away from suburban drama and a crappy home life, which the police are all-too familiar with. As a matter of course, the locals call in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to assist on an investigation suspected to likely resolve itself when the kid runs out of either friends to crash with or money to live on and decides to come back home.

But FDLE Special Agent Bobby Dees, who heads up the difficult Crimes Against Children (CAC) Squad, doesn’t think Elaine Emerson is a runaway. When the investigation reveals Lainey was involved in a secret Internet relationship, spawned over a chat room and nurtured through untraceable instant messages, Bobby fears she may be the victim of an online predator. And, as he soon discovers, she may not be the only one.

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INTERVIEW

January 9, 2004

In the second half of a two-part interview conducted by Bookreporter.com co-Founder Carol Fitzgerald, and reviewers Joe Hartlaub and Bethanne Kelly Patrick, Jillianne Hoffman talks about her love for Miami and its people, some of her favorite authors, and what readers are saying about her debut novel RETRIBUTION.

Bookreporter.com: You write about life in the boroughs of New York with great description. Did you spend time in the city?

Jilliane Hoffman: I grew up on Long Island and attended both undergraduate and law school at St. John's University in Queens. I interned for both a judge in Brooklyn and for the District Attorney's Office in Queens, and I worked for a civil law firm in NYC.

Oh, and I lived in Bayside, Queens with my husband. Right there on Rocky Hill Road, just a few minutes from the LIRR train station.

BRC: You also write with great detail about Cuban Miami. You have so many colorful bits and scenes with pastelitos, cafe Cubana and The Pickle Jar restaurant. What do you like about this area?

JH: When writing about Miami, you can't ignore the people in it. Cubans, Columbians, Brazilians --- they all influence the flavor of the city. Even in the Miami courthouse, Cuban coffee is served alongside pastelitos, and in every Publix you can find loaves of Cuban bread, fresh baked. I wanted the reader to experience Miami exactly the way it is, in all its delicious, colorful splendor. Because you can't drive down Eighth Street without hearing Latin music and seeing cafeterias, and you can't get bad frijoles negros in Little Havana.

BRC: What are you working on now and when can readers see it? Will readers see CJ and Dom again in a later book?

JH: I am working on a sequel to RETRIBUTION. I can't tell you who'll be in it, because I don't want to spoil the surprise(s). I believe it will be published next year (2005).

BRC: Clearly CJ has a lot of issues based upon her rape. What are the challenges in writing a relationship for a character who is a damaged woman?

JH: You have to think like one. You have to constantly be aware of what she has faced and how that will affect everything from where she eats dinner to how she returns her lover's kiss.

BRC: RETRIBUTION explores the subtle distinction between justice and revenge, as well as the nexus where the two concepts can, and often, intersect. The ending might be considered controversial in some circles, while very satisfying in others. Will CJ's actions in RETRIBUTION have any repercussions in future novels?

JH: I was not concerned with a happy ending. I wanted people to get to the end of the book, close it and turn to the guy next to them (who also hopefully just read it) and talk about it. I wanted to incite conversation and debate, and for people to wonder if justice really was had. C.J. has to live with all she has done and all she has failed to do, as well as the consequences of her decisions. Mighty heavy luggage to cart around…

BRC: You never took a writing course. But surely you read a book or two before you started RETRIBUTION. Which were most helpful? What author is your role model?

JH: I wrote something that I, myself, would like to read. With that in mind, my favorite authors are John Grisham, James Patterson and Thomas Harris. Grisham is King of the Courtroom, Patterson is a page-turner and Harris scares me. I'd have to say I admire all three for different reasons.

BRC: How did you feel when you saw the finished book for the first time?

JH: Awed. Then proud.

BRC: What are you hearing from readers about RETRIBUTION?

JH: Most people tell me that it scared them, some so much that they could not read it when alone or at night. But then those same people tell me that they simply could not put it down, and I have heard of many people reading it in one sitting. That makes me feel great! I am also hearing from readers that they love the metamorphosis that Chloe goes through --- from happy, optimistic law student to a scared and paralyzed victim to a woman capable of engineering retribution. And the courtroom scenes --- a lot of people can't believe the realities of the criminal justice system: the statute of limitations, search and seizure law, evidence suppression. Truth is stranger than fiction I suppose.

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INTERVIEW

December 19, 2003

Jilliane Hoffman's background in law enforcement helped serve as the inspiration for her debut novel, RETRIBUTION. In Part One of a two-part interview conducted by Bookreporter.com Co-Founder Carol Fitzgerald, and reviewers Joe Hartlaub and Bethanne Kelly Patrick, Hoffman discusses why she made sex crimes the topic of RETRIBUTION, the development of her characters and why she wrote some scenes as graphically as she did.

Bookreporter.com: You were Assistant State Attorney in one of America's crime capitals. Why not a nonfiction book? What led you to write fiction?

Jilliane Hoffman: While I often find truth in the law to be stranger --- and sometimes crueler --- than fiction, with fiction you can be more creative with the facts to intensify the suspense and color the characters. You create the story and the people, and you control the events. That's challenging.

BRC: You were an advisor for The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and dealt with both civil and criminal matters. When one --- at least one who lives outside of Florida --- thinks of crime in Florida, one thinks of drug trafficking. What was the impetus for you to make sex crimes, as opposed to drug trafficking or smuggling, the topic of RETRIBUTION?

JH: As the RLA for The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) in Miami, I helped rewrite Florida's sexual predator and offender notification laws (The Public Safety Information Act) and worked closely with FDLE special agents and the local police departments tracking offenders and notifying the public of their presence. As a prosecutor, I prosecuted a serial rapist and worked closely with many sexual battery victims. I know the physical and emotional damage inflicted on their victims and the psychological fear that grips a community when they are at large. I thought it a more interesting and socially compelling dynamic than drug smuggling.

BRC: The secondary characters in RETRIBUTION --- the judges, the policemen, the defense counsel, and particularly Marisol Alfonso --- seemed very true to life. Did you model anyone in the book directly on any of your acquaintances? Without naming names, of course!

JH: Every character in RETRIBUTION is flavored by the people who I have met in law enforcement. I would not say that any one person is representative of a particular character; rather I have borrowed certain distinctive attributes and idiosyncrasies from friends and associates that I have come across, mixed them together and created unique true-to-life characters.

BRC: Let's ask the obvious. How much of you is there in C.J. Townsend?

JH: You write what you know, so there is a great deal of me in C.J.

BRC: There's a great --- clearly fictional --- twist in the creation of your main character. But was the story itself inspired by a real case?

JH: No. While I can't say that all I have seen and heard in my years of law enforcement did not somehow make it into the book, there was no one case that inspired me.

BRC: As a woman who knows sex crimes victims from the prosecutor table, how hard was it to write the rape scene in RETRIBUTION?

JH: As a prosecutor, when you explain a set of facts to a jury, you have to do more than just that. You have to take them back there --- to the scene of the crime, into the bedroom --- and let them live the moment and feel the terror that your victim did, so that they can truly understand it. Understand her. I have listened to a lot of victims tell their horrible stories, each one different, and yet strangely similar. As a woman, I think all you need do is close your eyes and imagine one of your greatest fears happening in the privacy, sanctity and isolation of your own home, and the scene will play for you and the words will come.

BRC: Is RETRIBUTION a legal thriller? A suspense book? How would you characterize it?

JH: Both, and then some. I call it a legal, psychological suspense thriller.

BRC: A thriller. A sex crime. A psychiatrist. That's SILENCE OF THE LAMBS --- and RETRIBUTION. How conscious were you of that earlier book as you planned the character of Dr. Chambers?

JH: Conscious in the sense that I admire Thomas Harris and loved SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. But the dynamics in RETRIBUTION are different, and without giving anything away, the motivations of Dr. Chambers are not that of Hannibal Lector.

BRC: Again and again, we read that men who commit sex crimes rarely stop at one. It's an extension of government that would violate civil rights … but would women sleep better if all men had to give police a DNA sample?

JH: Rape is a crime of power and control, not passion. The fear of getting caught will not stop a sex offender. A DNA sample will help law enforcement find an individual --- if he has left a sample of himself behind --- but it will not stop the crime itself from occurring.

BRC: Reading your book, we thought, "It seems that if you're an attractive young woman, you should go through your day thinking that life is dangerous and you, in particular, aren't safe." Do you believe that? If so, what can women do to protect themselves?

JH: I think no one is immune to crime. With that in mind, I take certain common-sense precautions. I don't walk or jog alone at night, or in areas that are deserted or isolated even during the day. I make sure my home is secure before I go to sleep, and I am aware of my surroundings at all times. If my gut tells me something is amiss, I listen to it.

BRC: RETRIBUTION has received a lot of attention before publication. What is it like to have your manuscript become The HOT Debut Book of the year?

JH: It is an amazing feeling, really. I never imagined it would happen, so I appreciate every piece of good news that I get, thinking it can't get any better than this. The big test is the reading public.

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