On one mission, his entire platoon was killed in an ambush, and he was severely injured. He regained consciousness coated in the blood of his fellow soldiers; he was disoriented and unable to move. 

Stevenson shares this quote in Chapter Four as he describes some of the horrors Herbert Richardson endured in Vietnam. Through the sensory details of being covered in blood, disoriented, and unable to move, Stevenson brings a visceral understanding of the terrible moment. In this chapter, Stevenson sets Richardson up as one example of the many veterans who experience both severe trauma and insufficient treatment when they return to civilian life. While Stevenson writes of the high rates of incarceration for military veterans, the numbers tell one part of the story. Richardson gives a human face behind the numbers. Throughout the chapter, Stevenson details additional trauma Richardson endures during his lifetime, inspiring sympathy and highlighting the irony that none of these mitigating factors are allowed to be presented at trial.

I’d seen the abuse of power in many cases before, but there was something especially upsetting about it here, where not only a single defendant was being victimized but an entire community as well. 

This quote appears in Chapter Five as Stevenson details his hope of a positive outcome with the new district attorney, Tom Chapman. Stevenson highlights Chapman’s abuse of power in standing with the original district attorney who prosecuted the case and refused to acknowledge the illogical trial, conviction, and sentencing. Ironically, Stevenson suggests that Chapman takes his stance to put the community’s mind at ease with the knowledge that the person responsible for a brutal murder has been caught and punished. Though it may help put the white community’s minds at ease, McMillian’s false conviction and imprisonment negatively impacts his family and the Black community. The trauma extends well past McMillian to his wife and children, his church, witnesses from the fish fry, and Darnell Houston, who faces a perjury charge for telling the truth. In an effort to protect those at the head of a corrupt system, Chapman’s refusal to recognize the problems with McMillian’s conviction harms many.

In preparing litigation on behalf of the children we were representing, it was clear that these shocking and senseless crimes couldn’t be evaluated honestly without understanding the lives these children had been forced to endure. 

This quote appears in Chapter Fourteen as Stevenson focuses on the story of Joe Sullivan. Stevenson shows how Sullivan’s mental disability, abuse, and neglect, make him an easy target for older boys planning a robbery. While Sullivan was falsely convicted of a rape that occurred after the robbery, his childhood trauma contributed to his sentence handed down by a judge who sees him as irredeemable. Stevenson reinforces the role of trauma in juvenile crimes through the stories of Ashley Jones and Evan Miller, among others, all of whom experienced brutal childhoods that contributed to their unlawful behavior.