Duke University Press Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America's Death Row

Upon receiving his execution date, one of the thousands of men living on death row in the United States had an epiphany: "All there ever is, is this moment. You, me, all of us, right here, right now, this minute, that's love." Right Here, Right Now collects the powerful, first-person stories of dozens of men on death rows across the country. From childhood experiences living with poverty, hunger, and violence to mental illness and police misconduct to coming to terms with their executions, these men outline their struggle to maintain their connection to society and sustain the humanity that incarceration and its daily insults attempt to extinguish. By offering their hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears, failures, and wounds, the men challenge us to reconsider whether our current justice system offers actual justice or simply perpetuates the social injustices that obscure our shared humanity. Review " Right Here, Right Now contains moving, first-person, anonymous accounts of men living on death row. . . . With the common refrain of death row being reserved for the worst of America's criminals, Right Here, Right Now provokes uncomfortable questions about a judicial system that disproportionately incarcerates those who are 'descendants of enslaved peoples and other people of color, the vast majority poor, and too many mentally ill, ' as articulated by acclaimed death row attorney Henderson Hill in the book's foreword."--Thomasi McDonald "Indy Week" (5/26/2021 12:00:00 AM) "Everyone must read this book. To read the compelling stories in these pages is to feel the birth pangs of the fundamental changes that must come. These voices bear witness that criminal justice in America has become a nation's crime unto itself. We must measure our national stature and moral standing not by stock markets or church steeples but by the grace and humanity of the institutions that rebuild broken lives. Right Here, Right Now is the place to start."--Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and author of "The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement" "This powerful collection contains true stories from the dozens of men living on death row across the country. Some remembrances stretch back to childhood experiences of poverty and police misconduct, while other accounts pertain to life inside the carceral system, as the writers fight to hold on to their connections to the outside world. The events of 2020 underscored systematic inequality and the injustices of the justice system; here, these firsthand accounts form a moving, personal call to action."--Sarah Edwards "IndyWeek" (1/13/2021 12:00:00 AM) "Revelatory. Having spent twenty-five years advocating for comprehensive criminal justice reform and having spent time with many innocent people in maximum security prisons, I have often found more decency and compassion amongst the people inside the prison walls than without. These first-person stories serve to remind us of the humanity and common decency that we as a society all too often push aside in our rush to judgment and punishment."--Jason Flom, host of the podcast "Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom" About the Author Lynden Harris is the founder and director of Hidden Voices, an arts collective that collaborates with underrepresented communities to create performances, exhibits, and media that explore difficult social issues. Right Here, Right Now is part of the project Serving Life: ReVisioning Justice. Henderson Hill is Senior Counsel at the ACLU Capital Punishment Project. Timothy B. Tyson is Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.