The year Russell went to prison, his son and name sake Russell III went to kindergarten. In a profound sense, they were each on their own at the beginning of something momentous – one having just received a life sentence and the other starting school without a father, neither one of them with any way to reach out to the other. Russell III would not comprehend the events that led to his father’s incarceration or the context surrounding them for many years, and had no idea that it would become his life’s work to advocate for his father’s release. Something else happened at the same time that would also change the course of Russell III’s life – his informal adoption by a police officer, who could easily have been the one shot that night.

No one can make all these forms of suffering balance out against each other. An honest account can only uncover their complexities.