The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Selection)
Winner of the 2019 Christopher Award
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.
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Community Reviews
“...the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice, but justice needs help. Justice only happens when good people take a stand against injustice. The moral arc of the universe needs people to support it as it bends. And yes, it also needs people to pick a side.”
The injustice of Ray Anthony Hinton's guilty verdict and death row sentencing is so painfully blatant. Ray's story gives a poignant glimpse into the deeply flawed criminal justice system here in the states and how racism is front and center. The treatment of prisoners is so inhumane??? I found myself deeply disheartened to witness how powerful hate and division can strip people of their compassion and humanity. Every coercive method of control is used on these prisoners to demoralize them and leave them absolutely hopeless. Ray witnessed 54 of his inmates on death row die... His mother never saw him become a free man again... He spent thirty years on death row. It's so profoundly heartbreaking. It makes you really think about the power behind privilege and the little things in life that we take for granted.
I've been trying to find more ways to get involved in my community. I recently went to my local County Commissioner's meeting to show support for people speaking during the public comment period. I was surprised to find that there was not just one, but a few people speaking to our elected officials about criminal justice reform that had a background of having a wrongful conviction that resulted in 10+ years in prison. Ray's case happened in 1985, and as egregious as Ray's case is, I realized how important it is to remember that these injustices still happen, and they happen everywhere, even in your local community. So as the quote above says, now is the time to pick a side, and act!
The therapist social worker part of me LOVED the moments of Ray's story that illustrates how powerful the human imagination is. As someone who has seen a glimpse into the benefit of guided imagery in therapy, the strength of Ray's inner mental resources reaches a whole new level that leaves me dumbfounded. It reminded me the story of Sisyphus, but instead on a whole new level of hope and sheer willpower. This memoir is incredibly eye-opening and I would urge others to read it, especially via audiobook!
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