Documentary Synopsis

This is a story of murder and forgiveness.

On June 9, 1996, Mario Ramos graduated from high school. The next day, he murdered Andrew Young. It was one of 90 homicides in Chicago that month and, in many ways, it was nothing unusual – an 18-year-old gang member shoots and kills a 19-year-old male on a street corner in broad daylight. The events that followed were anything but typical.

The murderer was a parishioner at a nearby church; his victim lived in the neighborhood. The parish priest and members of the community rallied around the murderer and his family – not to defend what he had done, but to defend his humanity. They also reached out to the victim’s family, determined to arrive at a type of justice that would heal all concerned.

Their actions changed everything. They brought together the families of the murderer and his victim. They started the murderer on the road to rehabilitation. Ultimately, they led to a rare – and controversial – bond between the victim’s mother and the young man who killed her son.

This extraordinary story offers an approach to justice that moves beyond confrontation – and attempts to restore harmony to lives left broken by a terrible crime.

A Justice That Heals begins with Mario, in prison, recounting a dream he had before the crime: blood on his hands, police, a murder. He knew it was coming, he says, yet he did nothing to stop it.

Then, Mario and his victim’s twin brother recount Andrew’s murder. Andrew’s parents enter the story, then Mario’s parents. And then, Father Bob Oldershaw, a priest with the courage to truly “love the sinner” while “hating the sin.”

But it was the victim’s mother who took the most remarkable step. After months of struggling to help her family cope with this terrible tragedy, Maureen Young decided that she needed to forgive Mario. She didn’t feel forgiving, she says, but she knew that she needed to forgive him for her own sake, and for the sake of her family.

In Father Oldershaw’s statement at Mario’s trial, he said, “I am here because of two families and two sons. The Ramos Family are members of my parish. The Young Family are members of my community. Even as I grieve the devastating loss of Andrew Young, I firmly believe that Mario Ramos’ life need not be lost, it can be saved, it is being saved… I can’t imagine anything worse than taking someone’s life, but I still love Mario. Faith asks more. That we believe that redemption is possible, that a person can change and that there is a justice that heals.”