My latest car buddy read with Ben! Not the cheeriest read, but uplifting and important. I for sure happy cried at the end. I was inspired to read this after reading Lara Love Hardin’s memoir (which I loved!). Hardin cowrote this with Hinton. I guess I expected a similar structure to her own book, but this was almost entirely about his time on death row. His life after release is basically just the afterword. As a reader, I felt just the tiniest hint of what impatience Hinton must have felt, as the court system failed him time and time again. The appeals system in particular seems insane and nonsensical to me. I kept thinking “now he’ll be released,” only for it to take SO much longer than it should have.

The Sun Does Shine felt honest, introspective, and invigorating, both as a personal narrative and a polemic against the death penalty. Anthony Ray Hinton's voice comes through so clearly, and his skill lies in his ability to channel his history powerfully into what feels like spoken storytelling. He beautifully lays out his upbringing in a rural Alabama coal town, the unconditional love of his mother and childhood friend that surround him, and his early experiences in school and work as he lives within a racist, hierarchical culture that doesn't value him. He provides context that's almost never present in a trial narrative, often solely interested in the more immediate details of the crime being tried. The context is: he comes from people who love him, and he has value, even though the lawyers, prosecutors, and judges around him don't treat him as if he does.

Hinton comes to see the value in every other incarcerated person on death row, both innocent and guilty. The moral epiphanies and growth he undergoes in the near thirty years he spends incarcerated fascinated me, and truly proved that moral development can lie at complete odds with someone's position in life. Hinton finds more empathy and understanding than seems possible for the racist prosecutor and judge on his case, who both so abysmally failed to see any humanity in him. I look forward to hearing Hinton speak at a book event soon, and learning more about how this powerful book came to be. 

Was an infuriating read. Appreciated the balance between Ray’s story/personal anecdotes and facts about the prison system/death row. Felt a little repetitive at times about how Ray was feeling but also just puts the emphasis on how you would feel stuck somewhere for 30 years. 

Anthony Ray Hinton's story is heartbreaking, horrific, and frustrating. This shows how inhumane the death penalty is and the fact that the criminal justice system is broken, which makes it hard to guarantee that only actually violent criminals are executed.
I'm not religious and I'm not necessarily for forgiving people who've wronged me, as Hinton is, but I can see how forgiveness and his religious beliefs were important for him during his time in prison and to help him move on with his life.

I don’t like to give memoirs a rating, especially not something written in such a heavy and grueling focus. Anthony Ray Hinton was a real fighter in his life. He fought every single day of his 30 years behind bars, determined to get out alive and prove his innocence.

Even though I knew the eventual outcome of this story, Hinton’s recount of the events and his memories and the countless trials and rulings kept me on the edge of my seat. I also appreciate that, although he has a clear opinion in the death penalty, that was not the main focus in this memoir. His main focus, in my perception, was to show that you can persevere in the hardest of situations where truly all seems lost. 

This was a fantastically moving memoir. Everyone should read this at some point in their life, even if it is not the least relevant to their life.