STITCHING FREEDOM

Freed at last.

When Tyler was 16, the police in his Louisiana town falsely accused him of the murder of a 13-year-old white classmate. Although Tyler was innocent, his working-class Black parents mistakenly hired a divorce attorney to take his case. Tyler writes that the lawyer’s incompetence and callousness, the police intimidation of witnesses, and the purposeful delay of his court date all resulted in the court’s sentencing him as an adult rather than as a juvenile. Facing the death penalty at the age of 17, Tyler was sent by the state to Angola, the Louisiana penitentiary that the author describes as “one of the bloodiest, most dangerous prisons in the country.” In prison, he became politicized when incarcerated members of the Black Panther Party took him under their wing, exposing him to writings by Malcom X, Karl Marx, and Ho-Chi Minh. He volunteered for a hospice program, joined a drama club—performing in plays about racial injustice—and earned his GED. After 41 years of working with lawyers, his death sentence was overturned, and he was freed from prison. Tyler infuses this devastating memoir with hope and passion, deftly using his story to shine a light on the racism embedded in the American prison system. Although he does not shy away from the horrific details of being sentenced to death as a teenager, he also refuses to be seen as a victim, taking control of his narrative through trenchant analysis and self-reflection.

A falsely accused inmate’s devastating tale of surviving incarceration.