I really appreciated this book. It was thought provoking and engaging. 

Lara Love Hardin is a fantastic writer/ storyteller; Her writing style is conversational and personal that it puts me in the moment; and, her writing is so fluid and flows so well. 

What I really enjoyed about Hinton’s story is how he takes you through his legal journey. Going into the book, you know you’re going to read about racial injustices in the legal system especially in the south, but he shared his experience on maneuvering through the whole system from the moment of arrest through the appellate process. He shared personal accounts of his time on death row, but I personally love that he shows us the workings of the legal system and how can be abused to suppress people. 

This should be required reading for every person of every race, gender, background, and political identification in America. With unbelievable blend of humor, vulnerability, and shocking truth, Anthony Ray Hinton tells his story in a way that will stick with me for a very long time. Through his tale we see that racism is not something of the past, and is still something we are fighting each and every day.

Just wow. Listening to Mr. Hinton’s story was heartbreaking. The fact that he held onto his faith and had the capacity to forgive the people who stole his life from him is amazing. This brings to light the issues that plague the American Criminal Justice System and it makes you think about it. It is an uncomfortable topic but it needs to be talked about and researched to see how we can make it better. Overall, this was a great book and it will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Everyone needs to read this book. This was a book club pick and another reason why I love book club!! I don’t know if I would’ve ever come across this— not to be too dramatic, but this book was life changing. It absolutely broke my heart and made me so sad & angry. I’m still processing it. I never thought much about the death penalty or those on death row, and I never even heard of Anthony Ray Hinton until now. It was truly inspirational and I’m going to be recommending it to everyone I come across. Wow.

I finished this book in two days — it was riveting. Ray Hinton’s story is equal parts heartbreaking, terrifying, and hopeful. His outlook on life while serving time on death row as a wrongfully convicted man is awe-inspiring. But it is not without very dark moments and will cause you to really question the morality of the death penalty, especially when statistics show 1 in 10 people on death row is wrongfully convicted. 

A necessary and heart wrenching read. The last 20% was especially moving, especially as Hinton challenges the complicity of everyone wrapped up in the “justice” system. One of my favorite lines was when Hinton astutely points out that everyone is either part of the death squad or those banging on the bars. In other words, either you fight the death penalty or you are complicit in it. A much needed call to action. 

"When you are hanging at the end of your rope, does it really matter what color the hand is that reaches up to help you?"

If you want to be humbled, read this book. If you want to be angry, read this book. If you want to know what the resilience of the human spirit looks like, read this book. If you want to know how asinine and racist the Alabama state judicial system is, read this book (to date, almost a decade after Ray's release, Alabama still has not admitted wrongdoing nor offered a single penny of renumeration to the man from whom they stole 30 years).

Seriously, this book hits on a lot of themes. Injustice is probably the biggest, but it finds company with hope, healing, faith, and forgiveness. Ray shows us how humanity can live even in the most inhumane circumstances.

The heartwarming and heart-wrenching aspects of Hinton's story are juxtaposed seamlessly throughout this memoir. On the one hand, he tells us about how he "escapes" into different places within his mind (the celebrity marriages he has, the places he travels, illustrious sports careers, etc.) and how this gets him through his years on Death Row. On the other, if you have any background in trauma, it's hard to read that without recognizing the disassociation and PTSD. He talks about starting a prison book club and having discussions about race, violence, guilt, injustice, and many other topics with dozens of men on death row, but he also talks about how those same men all still end up walking to the death chamber.

In one of the depictions I find most moving, he describes how the whole floor of inmates bangs and yells and makes as much noise as they can from their cells when an inmate faces their execution so that the inmate will know he's not alone, that he mattered. It's a moving picture of solidarity, found family, and brotherhood even amongst men who could have been enemies. But he also describes the sounds of the generator and the lingering smell of burnt flesh following the execution. It's powerful.

I don't feel like I can add much to the conversation other than to say that anyone reflecting on the death penalty should have this on their reading list. For every 8-9 people executed in the US, another is exonerated. Roughly 4% of the people sentenced to death are innocent. That means that this is not an isolated incident. Even if one thinks that capital punishment is just, it'd be pretty difficult to argue that the death penalty is.

The only quip I have about this book is that I wish the very final section were longer; I wanted to hear more about his post-prison life. I wanted to see more of his acclimatization (or non-acclimatization) to the world outside. I don't think this man owes healing to anyone (except maybe himself), and given his extremely long and traumatic experience, I would expect that his adjustment has been difficult. I'd just like to hear more about that part of the journey.