Genre: Autobiographies, Life Stories
Read-Alikes:
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Life After Death by Damien Echols
Solitary by Albert Woodfox
“In 1985, Hinton was charged with capital murder for the killing of two store owners. Despite evidence that he had not committed the crimes, he was found guilty and sentenced to Alabama’s death row, where he spent the next 30 years. This book, which is not for the faint of heart, follows two parallel paths. First, it details the legal wrangling involved in Hinton’s case up to the intervention of civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson (author of Just Mercy, who wrote the foreword for this book) and Hinton’s release in 2015. Second, it gives a graphic account of life on death row, this being the most powerful part of the text. We learn about the interaction between the condemned and the guards, the cries for mercy, and finally the pungent smell of burning flesh after an execution. How could Hinton find any solace from this? Yet he does. In his closing remarks, he claims to have found life and freedom on death row, a place where the sun does shine. A cryptic remark indeed.” -Library Journal
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Thanks for reading,
George, FTPL
