The Lifer and the Lawyer Quotes

“We imagine our paths are freely chosen. But there is a need to account for biology and history, the random intercession of other people, culture, race, and the mystery of the transcendent.
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― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege

“Once he accepted God into his life, Michael immediately began receiving the benefit of small miracles—“gold nuggets,” he calls them—that he perceived to be tangible proof of God’s love.”
― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege

“As a child, Michael never once heard anyone tell him “I love you.”
― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege

“Iron Mike was learning how to love.”
― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege

“You could fight, take drugs, maybe even kill—but the behavior had to be confined to the inside of the prison. You could not escape.”
― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege

“The point is this: it is true that some people are very damaged. It is not true that they are all unsalvageable.”
― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege

“He left the hearing feeling liberated, lighter, and more transparent.”
― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege

“His New Year’s resolution for 2000 was to focus on ways he could make every encounter with every person a positive experience.”
― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege

“I cannot change the past, but today and every day to come, I will strive to be the best human I can be. I ask for your forgiveness in that light.”
― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege

“My reasons? Michael’s relationship with God is real whether or not God is the transcendent power represented in the Bible.”
― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege

“This statement of the jurors’ sense of justice may be the most succinct and forthright declaration of white privilege and racial paternalism I have ever heard.”
― George Critchlow, The Lifer and the Lawyer: A Story of Punishment, Penitence, and Privilege