Critical Essay Rough Draft & Citations

Maya Cunningham
April 19th, 2021
Joseph Galloway once said, “We who have seen war will never stop

seeing it. In the silence of the night, we will always hear the screams.” War

Veterans, just like Herbert Richardson, dealt with the “screams” of his pas,t

which unfortunately resulted in his death due to the people around him not

realizing and taking into account the internal struggle for Herbert. In this

Critical Essay, I will be explaining exactly what people like Herbert

Richardson go through.

Herbert Richardson was born on February 16, 1946, to a mother who

passed when he was three years old. He was battered physically at the age of

seven. Soon after that, at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the U.S. military,

where he would be sent to serve in the 11th Aviation Group, 1st Cavalry

Division. He was sent to Vietnam to Camp Radif, which was under heavy

attack at the time. When Richardson and his colleagues were under attack,

they were not spared. The assignment was especially horrific as Mr.

Richardson was the only one in his platoon to survive the deadly assault. As a

result of the beating, Mr. Richardson has become a mental case and attempted

to commit suicide many times. If he was screaming out in the middle of an

interview, he became unresponsive and went into “biting.” Despite the

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 Critical Essay Rough Draft & Citations
Maya Cunningham
April 19th, 2021
medical examination being strongly recommended for him, Mr. Richardson

stayed in combat for another seven months before being honorably

discharged in December of 1966. Mr. Richardson, including hundreds of

thousands of other Vietnam War veterans, came home traumatized and

injured. Following the fighting, thousands of his fellow soldiers committed

suicide. Hundreds of thousands of people have been diagnosed with

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychiatric illness that may manifest

itself through disturbing thoughts, nightmares, remorse, embarrassment, and

jitteriness. Numerous other veterans suffer from traumatic brain injury,

resulting in seizures and other physical effects, and psychological

complications such as mood alterations and increased risk-taking behavior.

Mr. Richardson was treated at a veterans hospital in New York while he was

in the city. He suffered intense head pain due to his horrific injury in Vietnam

and was known to yell “Incoming!" He was attended at the hospital by a

nurse from Dothan, Alabama. Mr. Richardson relocated to Dothan after the

nurse returned, expecting to develop a friendship with her. They dated briefly

until she advised Mr. Richardson not to call her.

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Maya Cunningham
April 19th, 2021
Mr. Richardson began devising strategies for regaining her attention,

but the plan he eventually created ended sadly. Mr. Richardson developed an

explosive to plant on the nurse's front porch, intending to detonate it and then

rush to her rescue, as he had done in Vietnam. So she will fall in love with

him and want to be with him once more. Regrettably, a young girl named

Rena Mae came outside after Mr. Richardson dropped the explosive on the

porch, picked up the mystery envelope, and shook it. The bomb detonated

immediately, killing Rena Mae and wounding a nearby neighbor. Mr.

Richardson, who was watching from across the street, was appalled—that

was not the outcome he had expected. He had not to attempt murder. Mr.

Richardson was convicted and charged with capital murder, a crime that

forced the court to establish an intent to kill. At trial, the prosecutor painted

Mr. Richardson as an alien from New York, a flawed individual, and an

intentional murderer, not as a man who bravely fought for the United States

in one of this country's most violent battles. In a blatant display of racial

profiling, the judge excluded all Black citizens from the jury pool, ensuring

that Mr. Richardson faced an all-white jury. Mr. Richardson's military

experience and its suffering were not noted at trial. This mistake occurs all

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too often, especially in cases involving Black veterans. Mr. Richardson's

counsel offered no proof of his past or military service. He provided no

evidence of Mr. Richardson's upbringing or military abuse, even though

trauma was critical in justifying the actions that landed him in prison. Mr.

Richardson was arrested and sentenced to death for capital murder.

Now, precisely what is PTSD, you ask? Well, according to

MedlinePlus, “Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health

disorder that some people develop after they experience or see a traumatic

event. The traumatic event may be life-threatening, such as combat, a natural

disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault. However, sometimes, the event is

not necessarily a dangerous one. For example, the sudden, unexpected death

of a loved one can also cause PTSD. It is normal to feel afraid during and

after a traumatic situation. The fear triggers a "fight-or-flight" response. This

is your body's way of helping to protect itself from possible harm. It causes

changes in your body such as the release of certain hormones and increases in

alertness, blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing.”

Another commonly asked question is, “How Common Is PTSD Among

Veterans?” The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that “ According

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Maya Cunningham
April 19th, 2021
to Hill & Ponton, “In a 2017 study involving 5,826 United States veterans,

12.9% were diagnosed with PTSD. This is a striking high rate compared to

the incidence of PTSD among the general population: Just 6.8% of the U.S.

population will experience PTSD at any point in their lives. Across the entire

U.S., only about 8 million U.S. adults have PTSD in a given year.”

Stevenson tries to depict Herbert's tragic life and justify his mental

illness by discussing his past experiences of loss, abuse, which he suffered as

a child, over Herbert's lifetime. By associating past pain with the memory of

hope, Stevenson showed the unhealthy fixation with his girlfriend. He can be

seen to give meaning to the word. Stevenson clarifies that the lawyer

underpaid for Herbert's implication is that he has no interest in his client's

future. The difference between Stevenson's recollection of Herbert's life and

the lawyer's refusal to mention anything about Herbert's history left his client

confused. Using the existing prejudices of the all-white jury to their

advantage, the prosecution held the (conveniently argued) theory that Herbert

was a Black Muslim to cover their tracks.

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Critical Essay Rough Draft & Citations
Maya Cunningham
April 19th, 2021
● Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and

Redemption. The United States, Random House Publishing

Group, 2014.

● Initiative, E. J. (2020, June 15). Herbert Richardson. Retrieved

April 19, 2021, from https://eji.org/cases/herbert-richardson/