In the summer 1989, despite a series of setbacks with obtaining space and securing funding, Stevenson and his friend Eva Ansley finally open the Equal justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. Even as they struggle with fundraising and hiring, they are immediately bombarded with death row cases. EJI clients begin pleading for them to make last-stage appeals for fellow inmates. Stevenson remarks that counsel in such cases was becoming even harder to secure since the publication of an article by David Bagwell, the volunteer lawyer who represented the recently executed Wayne Ritter. In the article, Bagwell expressed his disillusionment, encouraged lawyers not to defend death row cases, and expressed his support for the death penalty, saying “mad dogs ought to die.” Bagwell’s article was passed around among inmates, who developed a greater distrust of lawyers.
