“Your Honor, my client has no prior record.

He was under enormous pressure — his parents’ businesses were failing, the debts were crushing — ”

“Sit down, Counsel.” The judge didn’t raise her voice; she sharpened it.

“I have listened to the recordings this young woman risked her life to make.

I have heard your client laugh while he described the weight of his wife’s body going over a rail in a storm.

Debt does not do that to a person.