The Judas Goat: Guns and Sausage Gravy I am really good at arguing with myself. And I lose arguments with myself. All the time. When I’m thinking about a problem, I am my own irresistible force and immovable object all at once. As an attorney, it has come in handy over the years. I know the weaknesses in my case before I ever set foot in the courtroom. I know what the other side is going to say, so I say it first. I control the weakness. I put it on display. And because I’m prepared, I can explain with confidence exactly why that weakness simply does not matter. When I decided to write The Judas Goat , I had read many cases where one person used lethal force upon another and raised the issue of self-defense. Some were successful, many were not. So I thought about the “poster child” case, a term used in the profession for a case where the alleged events are so sympathetic it could affect the outcome of the case. In a perf...