The sun does shine
2018
- compensation for judicial error
- trials, litigation
- trials (murder)
- capital punishment
- death row
- mistaken identity
- death row inmates
- judicial error
- discrimination in capital punishment
- crime and race
The story
"A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit"--
What it’s like
Spare, plainspoken first-person prose that stays close to the body and the cell: the sounds of a prison wing, the hum of a fluorescent light that never goes off, the weight of a day counted in meals and count-times. The voice is steady and unhurried, more reflective than rageful, with dry humour surfacing in small human moments and long stretches given to the slow mechanics of appeals and waiting. Its emotional register is grave and tender at once, a mood of endurance rather than suspense, carried by the hope that books and letters bring into a windowless space. Intensity is real but mostly off the page: the death-row setting, the threat of execution and a harrowing account of institutional cruelty and racial injustice are present throughout, yet there is no graphic gore and violence is largely recounted rather than shown. It suits a quiet, focused sitting, a slow weekend, or a reader who wants a sober, hopeful true story about justice and the power of reading. Best for people who want substance over thrills and can sit with heavy material without needing it softened.
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