H E R B E R T R I C H A R D S O N

“The civil suit failed to slow down the State of Alabama, which moved ahead aggressively with more execution dates.”

Richardson called Stevenson soon after he moved his office to Montgomery. Stevenson hesitated in accepting such case, but upon accepting found that the court seemed to frame Richardson for a death penalty verdict, especially by not explaining rough past and severe PTSD after the Vietnam war to the judge. Richardson’s obsession with a nurse caused him to plant a bomb that was supposed to go off and make her run to him for safety, but instead it blew up two children. After many attempts of a stay, they turned to a verdict by the Supreme Court, which in the end denied their request. Promising to be there for the execution, Stevenson witnessed his first execution with one of his clients. In the final moments before Richardson’s execution, they played his requested song “The Old Rugged Cross”, the chapter’s namesake.