| Show - ' - Women prosecutors say they have to be tougher y q LI : t LAI1 DUES 0 A 1 1 -- Alice Vachss 40 (shown on the covspecializes in the most heinous of crime cases and the thinnest of proofs "I'm willing to take them on when no one else will" she says "I want them I can affect the worst crimes and worst offenders by putting them away and that's tremendously rewarding" The Flushing Meadow Park Rapist Case ended in a mistrial three times before er) BY ' COvEIR Ow ViDIV31Dt PHOTOGRAPH': 'ELIGER ::! 4sw - - I ') Alt f ' 1 i - ‘4k la kt 041-' ii 4 tt" I 1 1 ' P 1 t tipswerstio : te9 1 t 114 ' - - k I 7 1 iiri f A411 : Its44‘ '''t41) - It : 4 : 1 IISC) 'L 4 - e11- eF' IA n 0 "U' eis2 100'' l''1c'14" 4 MAO f 't' 11 0 - 13 - ' °411''' 4) 1114 f 411-0- ' 4 c 1 iS ' g ri q- - ' - Is 110411 ' ' el ei (2'4IJS4 - f ggi IIII" lib i Karen Steinhauser and Detective Gerald Schaffer in a ballistics lab in Denver Vachss took it over and got a conviction How does she do what others can't? "I fight harder" she says "What makes a difference in the courtroom is the sympathy you feel for the victims It gives you an intensity that communicates itself to the jury" n and elegant is Vachss chief of the Special Victims Bureau in ESHERRYE BY WARK ' If etr "- 0k gilEMALE f (:) le 4 1 - ' 9 ' ( 1 01711P t- PROSECUTORS new to courthouses and been appearing in numbers only past decade But approach to criminals is changing verdicts and sentences across the country And their empathy for victims—particularly women and children—is literally changing the law The five prosecutors in this story are typical of this tough new breed They may be among the most overworked women in the labor force today Those who are married were wed before joining a district attomey's staff The single women prosecutors say that close relationships are difficult to form and maintain because of the demands of their work And often their work makes them weep They admit this as openly as they acknowledge that their male colleagues seldom cry The women find the tragedies that they handle unbearably sad Their battle for acceptance within the criminal-justic- e system began the day they oassed their bar exams Winning over juries often has been a piece of cake compared with convincing male judges and defense lawyers that women belong in the legal world every bit as much as men do Much of their success has come from taking cases that men view as too emotional And it's from the victims in those cases that they have found great approval To a woman each is doggedly determined to win every legal contest and each declares that she has never turned down a case because it was too difficult To meet them is to admire them To hear their stories is to understand why n tGIE -:41 ) - 11' q e get emotional—slam doors and yea go horne and cry But men are stressed ' soft-spoke- ' out In° a ci' trent way 9 1 i HENRY L I PAGE 4 FEBRUARY 26 1989 PARADE MAGAZINE i 1 |
