A Voice Within These Walls: The Education of a Jailhouse Lawyer - Couverture rigide

Duncan, Calvin; Cull, Sophie

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0593834305 ISBN 13 : 9780593834305

Editeur : Penguin Press, 2025

Synopsis

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 a wildly incompetent public defense system 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-one, he filed his first motion from prison: “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 at the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola. Literature sustained his hope, as he learned the law in its shadow.

During his decades of incarceration, Calvin helped hundreds of other prisoners navigate their cases, advocating for those the state had long since written off. He taught a class in the midst of Angola to empower other incarcerated men to fight for their own justice under the law. But his own case remained stalled. A defense lawyer once responded to Calvin’s request for documents: “You are not a person.”

Prison reform advocate Sophie Cull met Duncan after he was finally released from prison; Calvin began to tell her his story. Together, they've written a bracing condemnation of the criminal justice system, and an intimate portrait of a heroic and brilliant man’s resilience in the face of injustice.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Calvin Duncan is the founder and director of the Light of Justice Project, a program focused on improving legal access for incarcerated individuals. Falsely accused of murder at the age of 19, he endured a life sentence without the possibility of parole in Louisiana prisons for more than 28 years. While incarcerated, he became an Inmate Counsel-Substitute, or jailhouse lawyer, helping hundreds of fellow prisoners challenge wrongful convictions and unjust sentences. His efforts have contributed to landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Smith v. Cain (2012) and Ramos v. Louisiana (2020). He has received numerous national fellowships and awards, including the Soros Justice Fellowship, and holds a J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School. Duncan resides in New Orleans, where he is completing a master of laws at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and continues his advocacy on behalf of those still behind bars.

Sophie Cull is a criminal justice reform advocate whose work focuses on excessive sentencing and harsh punishments. She has led public education campaigns on racial discrimination in the criminal legal system and published on the death penalty, life sentences, and prosecutorial misconduct. She co-founded the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Penguin Press
• Date d'édition: 2025
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0593834305
• ISBN 13: 9780593834305
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 336
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible