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.

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.

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. 

I work as a public defender in a system that proves its brokenness to me on a weekly basis. It is frequently hard to feel like I’m doing anything worthwhile. This book both reinforced that fact and emphasized how important it is that I never stop trying to help. 

Ray Hinton’s story about his life, which was largely stolen from him by a corrupt and broken legal system, manages to be simultaneously heartbreaking and hopeful. I don’t think any of us can truly imagine the horror of living on death row, especially as an innocent person. It likely would have been easy for Mr. Hinton to give up many times of the 28 years he spent wrongfully condemned to death row. It would have been easy to be consumed by rage and hatred and despair. His survival of this injustice, done with unimaginable grace, leaves me largely speechless. 

There are many important lessons in this book. I think it’s one of the most important books I’ve ever read. But the most important lesson: we must abolish the death penalty. Justice demands it.