In the eyes of the court, James Price was considered a man. To the eyes in the courtroom, he was visibly a boy. At 5-foot-5 and 120 pounds, his standard-issue orange jumpsuit pooled at his feet and dragged. Shackles jangled around his skeletal wrists and ankles as a bailiff led him into a sunless chamber in downtown Milwaukee. Facing decades in prison, his fate hinged on one woman’s decision. “All rise,” said the bailiff.

And in walked Judge Janine Geske.

Appointed to the bench in 1981, Geske had seen it all in this dusty old courtroom. Sometimes she joked that when she dies, she’d like her ashes scattered in the hallway; then she could be sure they’d stay there forever. Geske’s caseload over 12 years on the circuit had included many of Milwaukee’s rapes and homicides. She’d seen her cit

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