June’s Harper’s, on newsstands May 21, contains an essay from me titled “Our Common Trouble,” about my meetings with Dwight Maxwell, the man who, in 1982, killed my father. The piece is also about criminal justice in Florida.

When I arrived at the house, I paced the fence, peering in where I could to spot movement back behind the collapsing garage, thinking I might see some sign of life in the house through the raising of a window shade. But there were only roosters in the distance and crickets. The dog lay still behind the fence. I returned to the side of the car and waited.

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