Collisions

After a productive summer project in four different Ugandan adult prisons, which was followed by an historic national plea bargaining conference in Kampala, the fall semester at Pepperdine Law began in earnest.  Because Divine Collision is officially being released in January, my teaching schedule was doubled up this fall so I could be more flexible to travel to book events in the spring.  This made the semester extra challenging, particularly in light of the week-long visit of a high-level delegation of Ugandan officials, the post-production and screening of the Remand film in November, and the final preparations for the book release.

In the summer of 2009, Dean Ken Starr traveled to Uganda to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ugandan Judiciary to formalize the partnership between Pepperdine and the Judiciary.

Dean Starr and CJ Odoki Signing MOU

As the relationship broadened and deepened, however, it became clear that an updated MOU would be needed to reflect the breadth of our partnership.  So about six months ago, we began discussing the terms of a new MOU and the location where it would be executed.  Eventually, we decided to sign the agreement in Malibu so the newly appointed Chief Justice of Uganda could follow in the footsteps of the prior two Ugandan CJs with a visit to Pepperdine.  And whereas the original MOU was with the Judiciary, the expanded MOU would be with the Justice, Law, and Order Sector, which included all 18 justice institutions in the country.

Accordingly, eight of the top Ugandan justice officials flew to Los Angeles in late October for a one-week study tour on case management and to sign the new MOU.  The delegation included the Chief Justice, the Principal Judge (head of the High Court), the Chief Registrar and Secretary of the Judiciary (administrative heads of the justice system), the Solicitor General, the Director of Public Prosecutions (chief prosecutor), a Court of Appeals Justice, and the Secretary of the Plea Bargaining Task Force.  We met with the LA County District Attorney’s Office, the LA County Public Defender’s Office, the US Federal District Court, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Los Angeles Superior Court, the California Court of Appeals, and the California Supreme Court.

The MOU-signing ceremony was held in the law school’s Caruso Auditorium in front of a crowd of over 200.  Over the course of an hour, I interviewed each of the officials and we presented each other with mementos, prior to the official signing.  The entire event was captured on video has now been posted here.

MOU Ceremony

Incidentally, that same week, Pepperdine kicked off the Parris Institute Distinguished speaker series by welcoming back to campus my classmate from 1993, Monty Moran, who serves as Chipotle Mexican Grill’s President and Co-CEO.  I interviewed him in front of another large crowd about how and why Chipotle has been such a success under his leadership.

With Chipotle’s Monty Moran

In November, the documentary film produced by Revolution Pictures was “preview screened” for the first time at Santa Monica’s historic Aero Theater before a crowd of about four hundred.

Aero Theater Marquee at Preview Screening

Post-Screening Celebration Cake with Henry’s Photo Edible in the Frosting

Before the film, we had a Producer’s Dinner at the Santa Monica Loews Hotel, which featured a conversation with Baylor President Ken Starr, whose vision and overriding sense of justice gave rise to the Global Justice Program almost ten year ago.  I was privileged to join Ken on stage, along with an alum and two students who participated in the events depicted in the film as we were interviewed by Dean Tacha.

Producer’s Dinner Panel with Ken Starr

Remand tells the story of how Pepperdine’s Global Justice Program has partnered with the Ugandans to bring needed change to the Ugandan criminal justice system.  The star of the film is Henry – the Ugandan boy featured in Divine Collision whom I met in a Ugandan juvenile prison nearly six years ago.  We were pleased with how well received the film was by the audience.

After the credits, Pepperdine film professor Craig Detweiler (who accompanied the film crew to Uganda both times) interviewed Revolution’s Randy Brewer, me, and a couple students in the film.  As the event was coming to a close, we Skyped in Henry from Uganda to the extreme delight of the crowd.

Henry on the Big Screen via Skype

Over the past few months, the book publisher (Worthy Publishing) has been working with an awesome publicist to put together a marketing plan and speaking tour in conjunction with the book release.  This will begin in early January, but will pick up speed when Henry arrives in early February for three weeks between medical school terms.  We are currently scheduled to be in Texas, Virginia, DC, New York, and Los Angeles for speaking engagements, television and radio interviews, and film screenings.  Henry is quite excited about this upcoming trip to the United States – his first.

So far, the book reviews have quite favorable.  Bob Goff wrote a much-too-kind Forward and the book is endorsed by Ken Starr; IJM’s Gary Haugen; World Vision’s Rich Stearns; three Ugandan Justices; Amazima’s Katie Davis; Pulitzer Prize-winner Ed Larson; Olympic Gold Medalist Scott Hamilton; Federal Judge Edith Jones; Pepperdine, ACU, and LCU Presidents Andy Benton, Phil Schubert, and Tim Perrin; ESPN’s Roger Cossack; authors John Sowers, Jay Milbrandt, and Sara Hagerty; and several others.

The outside review we most eagerly anticipated was from Publisher’s Weekly, and we were thrilled with their write-up.  I am told it will be very important to book sales to have lots of pre-release sales and post-release reviews on Amazon once the book is released.  So, if you buy and read the book and are willing to write a review, I would be most grateful.

Here is another tip – pre-release, Amazon’s price fluctuates, and Amazon’s pre-release purchase policy guarantees the purchaser the lowest price between the dates purchase and actual shipping.  More on this here.  (Also, for purposes of sales statistics, purchases made on Amazon that include more than one unit only count as one unit sold.  So, if you feel compelled to buy more than one copy of the book, please buy them in separate transactions).

So, when will the book be available?  Soon.  Very soon.  While the official release date is January 26, 2016, the book has already been printed and will be shipped to online and brick-and-mortar retailers in ten days.  I am told that the online retailers will actually ship to customers before Christmas and that brick-and-mortar retailers will have it on their shelves no later than January 26^th.  It will be in Barnes & Nobles, independent book stores, and Wal-Marts around the country beginning just after Christmas.

Since I am a huge fan of audio books, I was pleased when it was decided that Divine Collision would be recorded and available on amazon and audible.com by the official release date also.  I had a blast recording the difficult-to-pronounce words for the professional readers, and actually sitting in while Henry’s first-person parts were recorded in the studio by a former Shakespeare actor.

Recording Pronunciations at Studio

With Jason L. White, Reading Henry’s Parts in Divine Collision

The reader for the other parts will record in Nashville, so I will have to trust that he gets the pronunciations correct.

Henry continues to excel in medical school and is eager to meet many of you in about two months.