Under Texas\u2019s so-called law of parties, White was liable for Kaim\u2019s death whether he pulled the trigger or waited in the getaway car; his punishment may have been the same either way. White told me he suspects that Blocker evaded arrest by fleeing back to Jamaica. Kitchen, though, found the police\u2019s failure to track down Blocker infuriating. \u201cIs Joseff Deon White serving a 65 year sentence for a crime he only assisted in???\u201d she wrote on a questionnaire shortly before their first encounter. Only White knows for sure whether he had an accomplice and, if he did, what role each of them played in the crime. During our lunch, Kitchen pressed gingerly for details. \u201cSo did you and Blocker share the money?\u201d she asked White.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d White said. \u201cHe gave me some money.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean \u2018He<\/em> gave you<\/em>\u2019? Didn\u2019t you get the wallet?\u201d Whoever got the wallet was presumably the one who\u2019d robbed and shot her father.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t get the wallet,\u201d White said, shaking his head. \u201cI remember us being at the store. After he came back to the car, we left, and we went somewhere on the Southwest side. I think it was a Stop-N-Go. Blocker was giving me some money.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo it was Blocker who got out of the car?\u201d I asked. \u201cWho killed Katie\u2019s dad? Was it you or Blocker?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the problem I have,\u201d White said. \u201cI keep seeing different stuff. See what I\u2019m saying? I\u2019m trying to fit in what\u2019s missing.\u201d<\/p>\n Even within a single family, people grieve in different ways, and the legal procedures that allow for mercy sometimes expose the fault lines. \u201cMeeting with a Killer,\u201d a Court TV documentary from 2001 that has become a touchstone for victim-offender dialogues, follows the mother and daughter of Cathy O\u2019Daniel, a Houston woman who was raped and shot to death, in 1986, as they prepare to visit one of her two assailants in prison. During the meeting, the assailant\u2014who raped O\u2019Daniel but wasn\u2019t the shooter\u2014vows to change his life, and afterward both women give him a hug. Later, though, as Slate reported, O\u2019Daniel\u2019s daughter told the filmmaker that she regretted the embrace, and O\u2019Daniel\u2019s father, who\u2019d declined to participate in the mediation, said that he couldn\u2019t bear to watch the tape. More recently, two sons of Robert\u00a0F. Kennedy\u2014Robert, Jr., and Douglas\u2014have supported the release of Sirhan Sirhan, who was recommended for parole after serving more than five decades in prison for assassinating their father. \u201cI am grateful today to see him as a human being worthy of compassion and love,\u201d Douglas said last year, at a parole hearing. Kennedy\u2019s widow and six of his other children have spoken out against Sirhan\u2019s release, and, in a decision last week, California\u2019s governor, Gavin Newsom, sided with them.<\/p>\n Although Kitchen\u2019s family members didn\u2019t oppose White\u2019s parole, some have found her friendship with him discomfiting. Kitchen\u2019s daughter, K.\u00a0C. Coats, a Realtor who lives in Austin, attributed her mother\u2019s affection for White to her \u201cchildlike, innocent quality,\u201d which she described with loving skepticism. \u201cForgiveness can sometimes really require distance,\u201d Coats said, \u201cbecause it allows you to accept someone for who they are, and they\u2019re over there.\u201d She added, \u201cMy mother hasn\u2019t fully let the reality of what happened wash over her. She could have kept Joseff at an arm\u2019s length, and it all would have been just as good.\u201d Ellen Benninghoven shares her sister\u2019s interest in criminal-justice reform. Before the pandemic, she volunteered weekly with a Houston-based restorative-justice program called Bridges to Life, which, according to its Web site, leads incarcerated people through a curriculum \u201ccentered on responsibility, repentance, and restitution.\u201d But Benninghoven has never wanted to meet White, in part because she never got the sense from Kitchen that he was truly remorseful.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of these guys, when they go through this program, they realize what they\u2019ve done, and they want to say, \u2018I regret it,\u2019\u00a0\u201d Benninghoven told me one night at her house. She and Kitchen were in the living room, eating mint gelato from small glass bowls and finishing a game of Rummikub. A retired real-estate agent with a chic white pixie cut, Benninghoven has a more pragmatic air than her sister. \u201cIf Joseff had said, you know, \u2018I\u2019d been on drugs that night, and I really regret what I did,\u2019 it\u2019s not like he would ever have been my good friend, but I would sort of want to keep up with him.\u201d Benninghoven turned to Kitchen. \u201cBut when he couldn\u2019t say those words? And you didn\u2019t need them?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want him to ever have to feel he had to lie to me,\u201d Kitchen replied.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat would he have lied to you about?\u201d Benninghoven asked.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe he\u2019d feel he had to say he was sorry, even if he didn\u2019t mean it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, whatever the reason was, you didn\u2019t want to hear that he was sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut he did tell me stuff,\u201d Kitchen said. Before my visit, she had mailed me copies of documents from the mediation process, including a debriefing questionnaire that she and White had completed after their meeting. I retrieved it from my backpack. White\u2019s handwriting was faint and cramped, but on the back of the form Kitchen had rewritten some of his answers in cursive.<\/p>\n![\"\u201cUnfortunately](\"https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/cartoons\/61e1bc15f9ccdefbf752fa62\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/220124_a25011.jpg\")