The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Summer 2018 Selection)

Anthony Ray Hinton, Lara Love Hardin

St. Martin's Publishing Group, Mar 27, 2018 - Biography & Autobiography - 272 pages

Oprah's Book Club Summer 2018 Selection

The Instant New York Times Bestseller

A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit.

“An amazing and heartwarming story, it restores our faith in the inherent goodness of humanity.”
—Archbishop Desmond Tutu

In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty–nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free.

But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence—full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty–seven years he was a beacon—transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty–four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015.

With a foreword by Stevenson, The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton’s memoir tells his dramatic thirty–year journey and shows how you can take away a man’s freedom, but you can’t take away his imagination, humor, or joy.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - jmchshannon - LibraryThing

Mr. Hinton is a better man than I, and I can honestly say that I feel all the anger he no longer feels at the blatant racism that defines his entire case.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - hskey - LibraryThing

An astonishing read, incredibly powerful. I was on the verge of tears many times. Hinton's perseverance and spirit are incredible. The injustice and racial bias of the legal system is disgusting and I ...

Contents

• Capital Offense 1 2 All American: 15
• A TwoYear Test Drive 26 4 The Cooler Killer 37 5 Premeditated Guilt 49 6 The Whole Truth 55 7 Conviction Conviction Conviction 67 8 Keep Yo...: 110
• The Queen of England: 119
• No Monsters 129 14 Love Is a Foreign Language: 139
• Go Tell It on the Mountain 148 16 Shakedown: 157
• Gods Best Lawyer: 166
• Testing the Bullets: 173
• Empty Chairs: 183
• Dissent 203 21 They Kill You on Thursdays: 215
• Justice for All 224 23 The Sun Does Shine: 230
• Pray for Them by Name: 243
• Acknowledgments: 253

About the author

ANTHONY RAY HINTON spent nearly thirty years on death row for crimes he didn’t commit. Released in April 2015, Hinton now speaks widely on prison reform and the power of faith and forgiveness. He lives in Alabama.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Summer 2018 Selection)
• Authors: Anthony Ray Hinton, Lara Love Hardin
• Contributor: Bryan Stevenson
• Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2018
• ISBN: 1250124727, 9781250124722
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / African American & Black; Social Science / Discrimination; Social Science / Penology