From my arrest, prosecution and prison sentence, no one has ever asked to hear my story. Not where I came from, not what happened in my childhood that tore the fabric of my being, and not what caused me to choose crime instead of education. None of those questions were asked. No one ever desired to know the mitigating circumstances that landed me in prison! All that mattered to the police officer, prosecutor, court appointed attorney, judge and the jury was: "He committed this crime and we will punish him for it." From the beginning to the end of the judicial process, they never saw a dysfunctional teen, a teen who experienced sexual assault as a seven/eight year old child, a teen who hated seeing his single mother struggle to give him the essentials to have a meaningful life, a teen who had never met his father, and lastly, they never saw an inadequate teen who was incapable of being a father to his only child. No, they never saw any of those things when they looked upon me,...