Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America's Death Row - Paperback

by Lynden Harris (Editor)

Upon receiving his execution date, one of the thousands of men living on death row in the United States had an epiphany: "All there ever is, is this moment. You, me, all of us, right here, right now, this minute, that's love." Right Here, Right Now collects the powerful, first-person stories of dozens of men on death rows across the country. From childhood experiences living with poverty, hunger, and violence to mental illness and police misconduct to coming to terms with their executions, these men outline their struggle to maintain their connection to society and sustain the humanity that incarceration and its daily insults attempt to extinguish. By offering their hopes, dreams, aspirations, fears, failures, and wounds, the men challenge us to reconsider whether our current justice system offers actual justice or simply perpetuates the social injustices that obscure our shared humanity.

Author Biography

Lynden Harris is the founder and director of Hidden Voices, an arts collective that collaborates with underrepresented communities to create performances, exhibits, and media that explore difficult social issues. Right Here, Right Now is part of the project Serving Life: ReVisioning Justice.

Henderson Hill is Senior Counsel at the ACLU Capital Punishment Project.

Timothy B. Tyson is Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.