What It Was Like
Page 45
I know that my excellent new lawyer is going to hate what I’ve written, but I can’t help it. People who read it are going to say I’m just a self-dramatizing teenager, looking for another chance he doesn’t deserve. I say, so what? I’ve bet on the truth, and the truth shall set me free. Someday.
In any case, thank you, Counselor, for all of your encouragement and support. Me gotta go now . . . before I make things worse.
I guess it’s way too late for that.
Publisher's Note
The above manuscript was deemed inadmissible and never accepted as evidence in Case No. 1004-70, Second Judicial Department, Appellate Division, Supreme Court of New York State.
Defendant X was released on 2/3/10 after serving almost thirty-five years in various penitentiaries around the country.
He is currently living in the western United States, under an assumed name, with a new identity. The writer reviewed the galleys and has approved this edition of his manuscript.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank Nancy Cushing-Jones for her unfailing good advice in many areas. I thank Lou Aronica, Aaron Brown, Barbara Aronica-Buck, and everyone at The Story Plant and Perseus Distribution for their work in helping bring my book into this world. A special thank you to copy editor Nora Tamada for improving this book in many ways, large and small. I also want to thank honest Laurie Horowitz, Kate Klimo, Eva Charney, Marsha Clark, Alan Blumenfeld, Susan Pile, Wendy Winks, and Jonathan Jackson (early readers of the manuscript who encouraged me). A particular thank you to my big brother Bruce Robinson for his lifelong support, friendship, and jokes. I also want to much-more-than-merely-thank my son Jesse and my daughter Daisy for helping give meaning and joy to my life and being inspirations to me every day. Please put me in a nice home. And I want to thank Mary Elizabeth Shutt for practically everything else.