The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton ~ Book Review

Full Title:  The Sun Does Shine:  How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row

In 1985 Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested in Alabama and charged with 2 counts of capital murder.  Though he was scared and shocked, Anthony knew he was working that night miles away from from the murders in a sign in, fenced and secured supermarket where he had to regularly check in with supervisors, so he figured all he had to do was tell the truth and it would prevail.  That's what his Mama always told him.  But another attempted murder victim who picked him out as the perpetrator combined with the fact of his being black and poor worked against him.  Because he could not afford his own attorney he was assigned one from the state, one who couldn't be bothered to really dig into his case and defend him properly because the state only pays $1000 for these attorneys.  Add a racist prosecutor and judge who wanted a conviction for political purposes and Anthony found himself on Death Row sentenced to death by electrocution even though he passed a polygraph test where the administrator said there was no way he committed the murders.   In his time there, he watched 54 men walk past him to their deaths only feet from his cell.  This is his story of how he got past the anger, the dread, the hopelessness to find purpose in becoming his best in order to lift others within his block.  With the help of Bryan Stevenson, the civil rights lawyer who wrote the book Just Mercy, Hinton was finally released 15 years after Stevenson took on his case.  But now with his hard fought for freedom,  he had to learn to live in a world that had moved on without him, that was totally different yet unchanged in some ways from when he was first arrested.  He had to adjust 30 years of living in a tiny cell to becoming a contributing member of society on the "outside".   

This book was phenomenal.  It was shocking and real and upsetting.  Which it should be.  Hinton does not hold back from the realness of the horror of being on death row, especially knowing you are innocent, but he also is able to show how choices even in the very most horrific situations can determine what kind of person you become and that there is beauty if you look for it.  There were so many quotes I took from this book but it would make the post really long but there are some I must share that really hit home with me.

"I was on death row, not by my own choice, but I had made the choice to spend the last three years thinking about killing McGregor (prosecutor) and thinking about killing myself.  Despair was a choice.  Hatred was a choice.  Anger was a choice.  

I still had choices and that knowledge rocked me.

I may not have had as many as Lester (his best friend) had, but I still had some choices.

I could choose to give up or hang on.

Hope was a choice.

Faith was a choice.

And more than anything else, love was a choice.

Compassion was a choice."

pg 115

"I wasn't expecting to have my heart break that night.  I wasn't expecting to end 3 years of silence.  It was a revelation to realize I wasn't the only man on death row.  

I was born with the same gift from God we are all born with - the impulse to reach out and lessen the suffering of another human being.

It was a gift and we each had a choice whether to use the gift or not.

pg 117

"I was afraid every single day on death row.

And I also found a way to find joy every single day.

I learned that fear and joy are both a choice.

And every morning, when I opened my eyes at 3 a.m. and saw the cement and the mesh wire and the sadness and filth of my tiny cell,

I had a choice.

Would I choose fear, or would I choose love?

Would I choose a prison or would I choose a home?  It wasn't always easy."

pg. 186

In the Afterword of the book, Hinton lists all the names of people on death row in America as of 2017.  He asks you to read each name aloud.  Then he asks you to put the word innocent after every tenth name.  Then he asks you to pray for each by name.  It is a sobering exercise that really brings home the reality of the "justice" system in America.

Anthony Ray Hinton's story is amazing and convicting.  It is a testament to the fact that we can choose faith, we can choose hope, we can choose forgiveness.  This next quote really sums it up.  Unfortunately, I did not record what page it is on.  I know I really shouldn't quote it because of that but it's too important.

"Some will read this book and be enraged at the injustice and suffering heaped upon an innocent black man. As we all should be.

But to not go beyond and understand that his life story is trying to tell us

that we have choices no matter how horrendous our circumstance

and to choose well,

is missing half his story!

Though parts of this book are extremely hard to read as it's an indictment upon us as humans, it resonates with hope and inspiration."

After reading this I feel this book should be required reading in high school instead of some of the stuff we were assigned to read that had no impact upon us except to rush through and get the assignment done.  This book makes you think, makes you examine why you take the stand you do on issues such as racism and the death penalty and opens your eyes to your own choices and excuses and directions you have taken.  

Highly, highly recommend.

I rated it 10+ out of 10

Read Your Shelf Challenge:  April Prompt:  Read a book with 5+ words in the title