Finally, and most important, I told those gathered in the church that Walter had taught me that mercy is just when it is rooted in hopefulness and freely given. Mercy is most empowering, liberating, and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving. The people who haven't earned it, who haven't even sought it, are the most meaningful recipients of our compassion.

I've been trying to write a review for this book for fifteen minutes and I can't think of anything to say that hasn't already been said by someone else in a much better way, but: I think this book should be required reading. If you're for or neutral on capital punishment, Stevenson will change your mind. If you're against it, you'll be even more radicalized than before. Either way, you'll shed a lot of tears.

Stevenson writes about a horrific and tragic reality with so much hope and compassion for humanity that, although this book is a hard and gruelling lesson, you leave not with a sense of defeat, but with renewed hope that enacting lasting change is possible.