Witness
Description
A first-hand account of the death penalty's wholly destructive nature.
In Witness, Lyle C. May offers a scathing critique of shifts in sentencing laws, prison policies that ensure recidivism, and classic "tough on crime" views that don't make society safer or prevent crime. These insightful and analytical essays explore capital punishment, life imprisonment, prison education, prison journalism, as well as what activism from inside looks like on the road toward abolishing the carceral state.
No outside journalist can adequately report what happens inside death row or what it is like to live through thirty-three executions of people you know. May's grounded writings in Witness challenge the myths, misconceptions, and misinformation about the criminal legal system and death in prison, guiding readers on a journey through North Carolina's congregate death row, where the author has spent over twenty years of his life.
With a foreword by activist, lawyer, and professor Danielle Purifoy, and drawing on the work of Angela Y. Davis, Mariame Kaba, and other abolitionist scholars, Witness shows there is more to life under the sentence of death than what is portrayed in crime dramas or mass media. Lyle C. May's life, journalism, and activism are a guidebook to abolitionism in practice.
More details
Person
Lyle C. May is a prison journalist, abolitionist, and Ohio University Alum currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in sociology, with a criminology major. He is a member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society and the Author's Guild. Lyle's writings have appeared in Scalawag Magazine, Perspectives on Politics, The Intercept, America Magazine, Inside Higher Ed, and elsewhere. Lyle is also a coauthor of Inside: Voices from Death Row (Scuppernong Editions, 2022) and contributor to Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America's Death Row (Duke University Press, 2021). He routinely lectures to high school and university students, church groups, and community organizations on the politics, policies, and experiences of mass incarceration. As he pursues every legal avenue to overturn his wrongful conviction and death sentence, Lyle advocates for greater access to higher education in prison.
Content
Section A-State of Violence: Capital Punishment and Death Row On Death Row, Eating to Live A Confirmation of Faith Secrecy and the Death Penalty Beyond the wall Death Row Phenomenon Jesus as a Man on Death Row Learning to Die Section B-Carceral State: Life imprisonment Life Without Parole is a Silent Execution A Tale of Two Henrys Paroling Michael Pinch Death by Incarceration Mob Mentality and Politics: The viral space where bad laws are made Section C-Culture of Control: Higher Education and Prison Journalism Draconian Ideals Obstructing Reform Resilience and Resistance Freeing the Press in Prison Prison Journalism: Fighting the Narrative of Control NC Innocence Inquiry Commission Does Not Save Every Innocent of Death Row Section D-Witness: Speaking Out The Digital Abolitionist Twitter Feed: Lisa Montgomery Science vs. Anti-Intellectualism and the Death Penalty Inside the Tinderbox: COVID-19 in Prison The Economics of Capital Punishment Qualified Immunity When the Thermometer Breaks The Myth of Deterrence No Man Left Behind Section E. Activism Front Line Snapshots of Activism On Retaliation against Incarcerated Writers The Hole: To Live Means to Resist The Fury of Our Resistance
