David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

the law could deliver justice for his
daughter’s death. At one point, Reynolds
spoke of the infamous Jerry DeWayne
Williams case, which involved a young
man arrested for grabbing a slice of
pizza from four children on the Redondo
Beach pier just south of Los Angeles.
Because Williams had five previous
convictions, for everything from robbery
to drug possession to violating parole,
the pizza-slice theft counted as his third
strike. He was sentenced to twenty-five
years to life.^9 Williams had a longer
sentence than his cellmate, who was a
murderer.
In retrospect, the Williams case was
the beginning of the end for Mike