The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton (and Lara Love Hardin)

My Instagram feed is full of memento mori ("Remember that you must die"), my own reminders included. There is no more poignant reminder to live because you will die, then living under an order of execution mere footsteps from the electric chair. But how do you live while incarcerated? Anthony Ray Hinton, author of The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, explores exactly this in his moving and tender #memoir . Hinton was wrongfully convicted of murder, sentenced to death by execution by the state of Alabama and lived on death row for nearly thirty years. Incarcerated in a 5x7-foot #prison cell steps from the electric chair, Hinton's memento mori reflections included seeing, hearing and smelling the deaths of fifty-four fellow inmates while he awaited his own execution, of which could happen any time.

This book shattered me. I literally dripped tears as I read it, having to take breaks to sob. There is so much injustice in this book and it fills me with dread, shame and hopelessness to see precisely how broken the systems are and how complicit we all are in upholding them. But I recommend every death worker read this book for one reason in particular: as long as our society state sanctions death as penalty, we will never view death as anything but the ultimate brutal punishment.

This book reminded me of the fragility of life, the wisdom of forgiveness, and the (to borrow Obama’s words) audacity of hope. It also points out, in my opinion, the major misstep of the #deathpositivity movement: death in modern America is the ultimate threat issued by the state not a sacred threshold we walk one another toward. Death is punishment, death is brutality inflicted, death is (in)justice served, death is execution, death is the ultimate threat we all live under, death is Damocles sword. I believe that every human is entitled to a holistic and dignified death; that will never be a reality as long as death is a punishment our government can issue to its citizens.

*The state I live in, Tennessee, has executed seven people since I have lived here (2017).