Benard McKinley will be among the hundreds of new students attending Northwestern University's prestigious Pritzker Law School this year but his path is unlike any of his fellow students.
In 2004, a judge told then 19-year-old Benard McKinley he would spend his next 97 birthdays behind bars. Last month, however, McKinley turned 39 as a free man and opened a hard-won birthday gift: an acceptance letter from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. With a legal career ahead of him, McKinley wants to give back.