In his memoir Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson recounts the stories of many defendants whose mental illness was ignored during their trial. Whether they were intellectually disabled or were going through major trauma, all of the clients were seriously impacted. Logically, a major detail like the defendant's mental state should have been discussed and considered when issuing a punishment. Evidence of their mental illness was overlooked, however, leading to guilty verdicts and, in some cases, executions. Regardless of the individual cases, avoiding the topic of mental health shows a complete failure to understand how it can severely impact an individual. To begin with, one such example is Herbert Richardson, whose service in Vietnam after a difficult