Capitol rioter says Schindler’s List taught her ‘what life is like for others’ as she accepts charge

“I’ve learned that even though we live in a wonderful country, things still need to improve,” the woman wrote to a judge overseeing her case

In all the soul-searching that has followed the 6 January riot at the US Capitol, it’s safe to say no one considered this solution that made one accused rioter reconsider her actions: reading the book that inspired the film Schindler’s List.

Anna Morgan-Lloyd, 49, of Indiana, will plead guilty to one of the charges against her for her participation in the attack on the Capitol. In a letter to the judge overseeing her case, Morgan-Lloyd wrote that the novel, as well the autobiography Just Mercy, by civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, helped her gain new perspective and realise how “ashamed” she was of joining the riot.

The books, she wrote, showed her “what life is like for others in our country.”

“I’ve learned that even though we live in a wonderful country, things still need to improve,” Morgan-Lloyd wrote. “People of all colors should feel as safe as I do to walk down the street.”

The woman, who authorities say entered the Capitol but didn’t destroy anything or engage in violence, will face three years probation, community service, and pay $500 in restitution.

Schindler’s Ark, the book which inspired the classic Steven Spielberg movie, tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a Nazi Party member who saves hundreds of Jews by employing them at his factory in occupied Poland. Just Mercy, meanwhile, tells the story of Bryan Stevenson, who founded the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989, a civil rights group.

FBI officials arrested Morgan-Lloyd and a friend earlier this year, identifying her in part because they had posted on Facebook that storming the Capitol was part of “the most exciting day of their lives.”

“To be clear, what the Defendant initially described as ‘the most exciting day of (her) life’ was, in fact, a tragic day for our nation — a day of riotous violence, collective destruction, and criminal conduct by a frenzied and lawless mob,” Acting US Attorney Channing Phillips wrote, accepting the plea, according to court records.

Nearly 500 people have been arrested in connection with the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol, according to a USA Today database.