Isn there a “Son-of-Sam” law that prohibits prisoners from making money from their books?
Several states, including Virginia, do indeed have “Son-of-Sam” laws, and I think it is quite possible that the authorities in this state will attempt to confiscate royalties from my first book, The Way of the Prisoner, because it contains a small section on my trial. That would be a shame, though, since – as I said above – I intend to use any possible income for charitable purposes and to help defray the expenses associated with writing. The original “Son-of-Sam” law was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991; the case citation is Simon & Schuster v. State Crime Victims Board, 502 U.S. 105 (1991). At issue was a book called Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, by N. Pileggi and H. Hill. The court ruled that the law violated the First Amendment (guaranteeing freedom of speech) because it “singled out speech on a particular subject for a financial burden that it places on no other speech and no other income” (at 123). Under this law, St. Augustine’s Confessions and Thoreau’s Civil Dis
