I had not been able to stop my father from killing himself, but maybe his death would mean something if I could keep someone on death row from being killed. I could help show judges and juries that my death row clients' lives were worth sparing by exposing the trauma and abuse and mental illness they had experienced. I could show that they were human, and more than their worst crimes.
This was something I'd felt strongly about for years. As a teenager, I read countless articles and followed every execution in the news. I studied psychology, neuroscience and criminal justice in college.
I thought my father's death made me better equipped to investigate death row cases as they coiled through the appeals process because now, I hadn't just learned about trauma, abuse and mental illness in books and classes. I lived with their echoes every day.
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