"Joe Sexton has done something remarkable with a tragic event that is etched into our collective consciousness, the massacre by a 19-year-old gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Valentine's Day, 2018. His meticulous and empathetic reporting takes us deep into the little-known world of death penalty defense, where men and women dedicate themselves to preserving the lives of killers whose acts horrify them and whose defense exacts a surprising psychological price. What does it take to pursue mercy amid cries for vengeance? And how to come to terms with the fact that no matter the outcome, there is no real winner?"—Linda Greenhouse, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court

“It takes courage and the sensibility of a truly great journalist to bring moral clarity to the work of the defenders of the damned, the mitigation team who represented Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland School shooter, a peculiarly American tradition that goes back to Clarence Darrow's defense of Leopold and Loeb. What it means to look at a monstrous act that defies mercy and still see a person.”—Barry Scheck, founder of The Innocence Project 

“When violence tears through a community, it pulls all of us into its wake — the grieving families, the jurors and judges who must weigh a soul against its worst act, and the lawyers willing to represent a person who is guilty of the indefensible. I've walked alongside enough grief and enough guilt to know that the one thing we cannot surrender is our shared humanity, shared even with those who have done the unspeakable. Facing that challenge is not soft work. It asks for honesty, for faith, and for the humility to keep looking when we'd rather look away. And it asks for books like this one.”—Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking