And so they are going to hang me.

It is the written law of the State of California that a lifetimer like me is guilty of a capital crime when he strikes a prison guard like Thurston.

Surely, he could not have been inconvenienced more than half an hour by that bleeding nose; and yet they are going to hang me for it.
And, see! This law, in my case, is _ex post facto_.

It was not a law at the time I killed Professor Haskell.

It was not passed until after I received my life-sentence.