The jury finds Small guilty Surprising everyone, O'Connor rejects the death penalty and sentences Small to life in prison without parole. Small predicts his own death in prison as he is escorted from the courtroom In November 1979, he is brutally murdered after having served only 81 days of his sentence.

O'Connor's stern and calculating rulings reveal her unique style as a judge. Buehler's narrative is a first-person view of what it feels like to be disabled, sitting next to an insane client who is unpredictable and volatile. Small's escape map, personal letters to Buehler, legal motions from jail, and his testimony all paint a vivid picture of his insanity. A backdrop of abusive jailers, a dangerous and highly intelligent criminal, surprisingly accurate predictions of 13 murders that remain unsolved to this day, and an alcoholic defense attorney and his cowboy investigator make this true courtroom drama frightening and intriguing. This is perhaps one of the craziest criminal trials in legal history.

A DEAD MAN CANNOT BITE is of current interest because of a 2008 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that limits the right of mentally impaired defendants to serve as their own counsels. The Court changed the prevailing insanity law in Indiana v. Ahmed Edwards, 554 U.S. (2008). Mentally ill defendants cannot be allowed to defend themselves if their conduct will only end up humiliating them or turning a trial into a farce. This is precisely what happened in Waymond Small's murder case.