In the summer of 1989, Stevenson and his friend Eva Ansley open the Alabama office he dreamed of—the Equal Justice Initiative, or EJI. They have little funds and almost no staff, but are almost instantly inundated with requests for help from death row inmates in Alabama. One of their clients is Michael Lindsey, whose former attorney, David Bagwell, had become disillusioned and written a screed about how mad dogs—that is, death row inmates—“‘ought to die’” (69). Lindsey had originally been sentenced to life imprisonment by a jury, but a judge had changed the order to death. Stevenson and Eva Ansley argue that the jury’s original sentence be imposed, but they are denied. Lindsey is executed. Another client is Horace Dunkins, who is severely intellectually disabled. The Supreme Court will not term the execution of mentally disabled people “cruel and unusual punishment” for another thirteen years. Dunkins is executed.

Stevenson receives a desperate call from another man on death row, Herbert Richardson. Herbert is a Vietnam War veteran who was traumatized by the war. He attempted suicide multiple times before landing in a mental hospital, where he fell in love with a nurse. After their relationship turned toxic, the nurse left him and moved home to Alabama.