About The Book 

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Stephen Camden was a well-known, iconic figure in the Public Defender's office in Vallejo during his time there.  He built a career as a defense attorney known for managing particularly challenging and multifaceted criminal trials.  His work at the Solano County Public Defender’s Office in the late 1960s and early 1970s placed him at the center of many high-profile legal matters due to the county's housing of infamous inmates at the California Medical Facility (CMF) in Vacaville.  He was known to have met with and in some instances provided legal representation for several notorious high-profile inmates, including Charles Manson and Edmund Kemper. 

 

However, Camden’s failure to conform earned him a host of problems in the late 1980s, including a solicitation of murder charge which ultimately cost him his position as the head Public Defender of Vallejo.  He fought hard to overcome the professional wreckage and personal challenges of those turbulent early years.  Camden eventually opened his own private practice and reinvented himself, showing a willingness to change plans and pivot when life doesn't go as expected.  His story is not just one of longevity, but of a career that intersected with some of the darkest corners of California’s legal history, helping to define the modern role of a public defender.