A review by bibliophage
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Lara Love Hardin, Anthony Ray Hinton

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

“$2,200. What is the price of a life? What is the dollar amount a man will trade his soul for? I don’t know the answers to those questions. I’ve thought about that man—wondered just what it was that led him to such a desperate act. What must he have been thinking as he sat in the dark waiting to rob and to murder? Every desperate act has its price, but I didn’t know then that the person who would pay the price was me. Where was I on the night John Davison was murdered? I have no idea. Was I asleep in my bed? Laughing with Lester? Eating with my mom? Visiting a lady friend? My days and nights were pretty unremarkable. I worked at a store assembling and delivering beds six days a week. I had kept my promise to stay out of trouble. And while I can’t say where I was or what I was doing on that particular night, I do know I was not out beating and robbing and murdering. 

I also know somebody got away with murder.” 

📚📖📚 

Anthony Ray Hinton spent 28 years on Death Row for a crime he did not commit due to racial prejudices and systemic injustices. Hinton was arrested in 1985 and he finally won his release in 2015. Here, Hinton details his journey, beginning with the anger he felt in his initial years of silence in solitary confinement. The memoir then moves through his emotional witness of the execution of his fellow inmates, one at a time, and ends with his final release. Reading and books played a significant role in Hinton’s story, and he was allowed to form a book club that proved to be a critical activity for Hinton and his fellow inmates. Hinton’s story was highlighted by Bryan Stevenson in his book <i>Just Mercy</i> which details the efforts of the Equal Justice Initiative to defend Hinton (they handled his defense for 16 years). 

Hinton’s story is emotional and powerful, and his relationship with reading is extraordinary. It is impossible to read Hinton’s words and not feel challenged or changed in some way.