A timeline drawn from the book. Scroll to follow the years as Henry and his family lived them.
Henry, in his late teens, hears attackers battering the front door and barricades himself with wooden sticks. The next day a psychiatrist diagnoses paranoid schizophrenia and prescribes pills. Edmund resolves to help his son for the rest of their lives.
In mid-July Edmund watches Henry leave the house at midnight and return at dawn, worn out. The author dates to this year the decision of some members of the district attorney’s office to keep Henry locked up for as long as they could.
Convicted in the 1997 trials, Henry is sent to Walton. He shares a cell, his medication seems to be failing, and Edmund watches a fragile recovery slip.
With release set for mid-December, the prosecutor reminds the prison that Henry is dangerous and suggests certifying him as a mentally disordered offender, the very treatment his family had begged the system to provide.
On May 7 the district attorney’s office petitions for a one-year civil commitment before the October 23 discharge. Two doctors reach opposite conclusions about danger, and one cannot be found to testify.
Henry is taken from the hospital to the county jail more than two months before his hearing, though he was improving. The family protests that treatment in jail is inadequate.
The hospital confirms in writing that Henry should not be held another year and should be released to private treatment under his father. Supervised outpatient care is not named as an option.
Contradictory reports follow Henry through a hospital admission. Alcohol and drug tests had all been negative, yet the admission notes say otherwise. In October he is back at Grant, and doctors find him in good mental health.
The author sees no light at the end of the tunnel and says the unjust justice may never end. Even so, hope and dreams still light Henry’s life and his family’s.