Brief Description:
"A searing and ultimately hopeful account of Calvin Duncan, "the most extraordinary jailhouse lawyer of our time" (Sister Helen Prejean), and his thirty-year path through Angola after a wrongful murder conviction, his coming-of-age as a legal mind while imprisoned, and his continued advocacy for those on the inside Calvin Duncan was nineteen when he was incarcerated for a 1981 New Orleans murder he didn't commit. The victim of wildly incompetent public defenders and a badly compromised witness, Duncan was left to rot in the waking nightmare of confinement. Armed with little education, he took matters into his own hands. At twenty, he filed his first motion from jail: "Motion for a Law Book," which launched his highly successful, self-taught, legal career. Trapped within this wholly corrupted system, Calvin became a legal advocate for himself and his fellow prisoners as an Inmate Counsel Substitute at the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary known as Angola. During his decades of incarceration, Calvin helped hundreds of other inmates navigate their cases, offering support to individuals the state had long since written off. Despite his tremendous work, his own case remained stalled. A defense lawyer once responded to his request for documents with a response regarding his legal status: "You are not a person." Prison reform advocate Sophie Cull met Duncan after he was released from prison and began working at her firm; Calvin began to tell her his story. Together, they've written a bracing condemnation of the criminal legal system, and an intimate portrait of a heroic and brilliant man and of his resilience in the face of injustice"--
About the Authors:
Calvin Duncan is the founder and director of the Light of Justice program, which works to improve access to the courts for incarcerated individuals. A former jailhouse lawyer at Angola prison, his work has contributed to landmark US Supreme Court decisions, including Smith v. Cain (2012)and Ramos v. Louisiana (2020). Duncan holds a JD from Lewis & Clark Law School and resides in New Orleans, where he continues his advocacy on behalfof those still behind bars.
Sophie Cullis a criminal justice reform advocate who has published on the death penalty, life sentences, and prosecutorial misconduct. As a cofounder of The Visiting Room Project, she helped create the world's largest collection of filmed interviews with people serving life without parole. Originally from Australia, she began her career in New Orleans, assisting legal organizations defending individuals on Louisiana's death row.