The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton

The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton was a great book subtitled How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, with Hinton released after spending nearly thirty years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

Hinton in 1985 was clocked in at work while a robbery committed elsewhere, and arrested after someone who had an ax to grind implicated him in that crime. Prosecutors then decided that the robbery similar to two unsolved murders and charged him with those crimes as well, with his state-appointed attorney providing scant defense, after complaining to Hinton about how little money he received from the state of Alabama for that representation. What comes through from the the story of Hinton's time on Death Row was how there's humanity possible in anything, how you respond to people is a choice. Fifty-four people were executed in his jail while he there and Hinton very much helped his fellow inmates, through the book club he formed as well as the simple act of acknowledging them, either during dark nights or by banging on the bars during executions, so someone would know they not alone, regardless of guilt or innocence.

The forward of the book was written by Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer who represents Death Row inmates and fights to abolish the death penalty, with it noted in the book both that we don't have the right to decide who should die, and people can be wrongly convicted, often due to poor representation as a result of not having money available for their defense, just like in Hinton's case. Hinton cites at the end that one out of every ten on Death Row are innocent, and Stevenson noted in a 2005 newspaper editorial that since 1975, there have been thirty-four executions and seven exonerations of Death Row prisoners, close to a one in five rate. Stevenson and Hinton met in 1999, with the state courts agreeing with the arguments of prosecutors and continually denying all appeals made on Hinton's behalf. Stevenson and Hinton then petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court and asked them to review whether adequate defense representation had been provided. The Court unanimously ruled in 2014 that that it had not been adequate and sent the case back to lower courts for review, with those courts agreeing with the Supreme Court and saying the case would have to be retried in Alabama. After first accusing Stevenson of stealing evidence that couldn't be found, the state declined to prosecute and dropping all charges, leading to Hinton's April 2015 release from prison.

The book is about a lot things, the horrible justice system in Alabama, the work of Bryan Stevenson, Hinton's attitude towards life and helping others, the support he received from Stevenson and his childhood friend who came to see him at virtually every visiting day over the thirty years, and the notion that people "shouldn't get used to injustice." Just as much as these other things, though, the book about this idea of whether the courts should be able to sentence people to death, with the closing of the book that "the death penalty is broken, and you are either part of the death squad or banging on the bars. Choose."

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson was an amazing biography of sorts from the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama and professor at NYU Law School. Stevenson has argued multiple times before the Supreme Court and won the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant and his work initially focused on representing death row prisoners and since has included the cause of helping youth imprisoned as adults and serving life sentences.

Stevenson in 1983 was a Harvard Law student working in Georgia on an internship and he notes in the book visiting a death row inmate and how many of those on death row didn't have anyone that would represent them in appeals, and in some cases they wound up there after convictions that included uninterested defense council. In 1989, Stevenson opened a law center dedicated to providing free legal service to those on death row in Alabama and a quote of his at the end of the introduction was "the true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned."

Much of the story is around the case of Walter McMillian, a black man in Alabama sent to death row after being convicted of the 1986 murder of an 18 year old woman, even though he was at a family gathering of dozens during the time of the murder. McMillian was arrested based on the testimony of someone implicated in another murder and who agreed to testify against McMillian in exchange for a reduced sentence. When that person recanted his story prior to trial, he was sent to death row, again, prior to any conviction, and then moved back to a more standard prison once he again agreed to testify against McMillian. Stevenson began representing McMillian after his conviction and sentence of death and the first effort Stevenson made to get him freed came when someone came forward with evidence that made the states corroborating accomplice witness testimony impossible, and that person was immediately arrested for perjury in an attempt to intimidate them. Eventually, McMillian was completely exonerated in 1993, five years after being sentenced to die in prison.

Stevenson later in the book wrote of death sentences being handed down to the mentally ill and mothers wrongly convicted of murder after having a stillborn baby, along with children being tried as adults and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Covered towards the end was how Stevenson argued before the Supreme Court on this question of children serving life sentences, especially as a result of crimes committed at 13-14 years old or non-homicide crimes, and in May 2010 the Court ruled that life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for children convicted of non-homicide crimes is cruel and unusual and not permitted.

It was a well-written book from Stevenson and really a sobering read on cases of extremely unjust punishment.