When we think about the crimes that draw the harshest punishments, the first question people ask is, 'How could someone do that?' But we rarely stay long enough to hear the real answer. In stories shaped by history, childhood harm, and pain passed down across generations, Vartkessian shows how people once full of promise can be pulled into cycles of violence and loss. The Deserving asks a simple, urgent question: will we wait for prison to respond to suffering, or will we care for our children before the hurt takes root? Real justice begins with listening. This book shows us what that looks like.

Calvin Duncan and Sophie Cull, co-authors of THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER

Elizabeth Vartkessian writes about death row like a detective crossed with a philosopher, propelling us one revelation at a time into a richer understanding of how violence begets violence. So many books and movies try to tell us why people harm and kill each other. We're always flashing back to the villain's childhood. But too often we give up and shrug off some people as monsters. Vartkessian offers a new, courageous vision for a society with less violence and more mercy, through an honest reckoning with how we fail the least among us.

Maurice Chammah, author of LET THE LORD SORT THEM: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE DEATH PENALTY

In The Deserving, Elizabeth Vartkessian writes with clarity and compassion about the condemned-about their lives on American death rows, about the traumatic lives they led before landing there, and about capital litigation and the mysterious, little-known world of the "mitigation specialist.' From her first visit to Texas's death row at age 23 to becoming a leader in her field, she pulls back the curtain on capital punishment and cruelty, American execution chambers, and the country's criminal and juvenile justice systems.

Professor John Bessler, author of THE DEATH PENALTY'S DENIAL OF FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS: INTERNATIONAL LAW, STATE PRACTICE, AND THE EMERGING ABOLITIONIST NORM