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

by Anthony Ray Hinton

There’s no way to know the exact second your life changes forever. You can only begin to know that moment by looking in the rearview mirror.

But pain and tragedy and injustice happen—they happen to us all. I’d like to believe it’s what you choose to do after such an experience that matters the most—that truly changes your life forever.

There’s no sadder place to be in this world than a place where there’s no hope.

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 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 had, but I still had some choices. I could choose to give up or to hang on. Hope was a choice. Faith was a choice. And more than anything else, love was a choice. Compassion was a choice.

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 this gift or not.

Everything, I realized, is a choice. And spending your days waiting to die is no way to live.

“You guys need to read James Baldwin, Harper Lee, Maya Angelou. I just read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; you guys need to read that one. And To Kill a Mockingbird, and Go Tell It on the Mountain.”

This burden was heavier than the heaviest mountain and he carried it in his heart. —JAMES BALDWIN, GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

it seems like the more you know of their story, the more you kind of forgive them for what they do.

We have a choice. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. Or we can deny our brokenness, forswear compassion, and, as a result, deny our humanity. —BRYAN STEVENSON, JUST MERCY

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. —HARPER LEE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons. —FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY

You need to hold on to your hope. If you have hope, you have everything.”