In this episode, James D. Diamond discusses his book After the Bloodbath: Is Healing Possible in the Wake of Rampage Shootings. Topics include Indigenous justice traditions, restorative justice, the effects of rampage shootings on victims and families, and potential changes to the US legal system to encourage healing in the wake of tragedy.

After the Blood Bath, “examines the typical American reaction to the tragedy of rampage killings,” the “interplay between offenders and their families and victims and their families,” and “an emerging and unreported trend”: the desire for reconciliation and healing between families of rampage offenders and the families of their victims. In this work, Diamond draws on “a distinct difference in how some American Indian communities treat rampage killers and their families” to ask what the Western justice system might learn about restorative justice from other traditions. 

James Diamond, has spent more than twenty-five years as a criminal lawyer, with experience as both a state prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney. He is the former director of the Tribal Justice Clinic at James E. Rogers College of Law and Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona. You can find him online at https://jamesddiamond.com/.

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The MSU Press podcast is a joint production of MSU Press and the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University. Thanks to Daniel Trego, Madiha Ghous, Donté Smith, Kylene Cave, and the team at MSU Press, especially Elise Jajuga and Julie Reaume, for helping to produce this podcast. Our theme music is “Coffee” by Cambo.