As I approached my first in-person visit with Ed Shin, I compared and contrasted our lives. First, he’s Asian as was I, but he was in prison, and I was not. Ed had a history of criminal behavior, and I didn’t—although my family did.

Specifically, my maternal grandfather had a criminal history and was arrested. He was not a medical doctor, yet he had performed medical “procedures”—multiple times. Abortions. I thought this was a terrible rumor embellished throughout the years—a misunderstanding. But a police report confirmed it. It was officially part of my family history—on record. Suddenly I related to Ed’s story and the act of causing death—intentionally or not, was our connective tissue. And suddenly, I was in his story.