Table of Contents

Foreword / Henderson Hill  ix
Acknowledgments  xv
Introduction  1
About the Stories  9
I. The Part That Was Innocent (Early Childhood, Birth to Five Years Old)
1. Playing Solitary  17
2. Grandma Shot Bob  18
3. Ajar  19
4. Now Questions Asked  21
5. Downpour  22
6. Nigger Lover  24
7. Shelf Life  25
8. Not the Worst Fate  27
9. Car Ride  30
10. Momma's Boy  32
11. Good Habits  34
II. Boot Camp (Elementary School, Six to Ten Years Old)
12. It Was Reefer  39
13. Blistered  41
14. Ode to a Pretty Girl  43
15. U-Turn  45
16. The Monster  46
17. Don't Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight  47
18. Red, Half-White, and Blue  49
19. Badge of Honor  51
20. Boot Camp  52
21. Lesson Learned  54
22. Better Off Dead  56
23. Shake It Off  58
III. The Drama Was Live (Middle School, Eleven to Thirteen Years Old)
24. You Can Be Anything  63
25. Bootleg  65
26. Luxury  67
27. Cop  68
28. Man of the House  69
29. Trance  71
30. Tar Pit  73
31. Point Blank  75
32. Role Model  77
33. Elliot MF Jones  79
34. Suspension of Disbelief  81
IV. From Bad to Worse (Fourteen Years Old to Arrest)
35. A Wrap  85
36. JD  86
37. When We Were Young  88
38. Stinging Bee  90
39. Hands On  92
40. On My Own  94
41. Ain't Got No Name  96
42. Slap in the Face  98
43. Doing My Job  100
44. White Devil  102
45. Voices in the Dark  103
46. Finally  105
47. Crossing Over  107
V. Given the Circumstances
48. A Kind of Peace  113
49. Seeing the Light  116
50. Boy  119
51. The Quiet Room  122
52. Helpless  124
53. Just Like a Frog  127
54. The Source  129
55. I Heard You  131
56. Mercy on My Soul  133
57. Butterflies  135
58. After the Storm  137
VI. Worst of the Worst (Entering Death Row and Solitary)
59. What You Got?  141
60. Worst of the Worst  142
61. Nursing Home  144
62. Combat Readiness  143
63. The Hole  148
64. Peanut  150
65. Motel 6  152
66. All These Guys  155
67. Word is Bond  157
VII. You Are Not Here to Be Rehabilitated
68. The Raw  163
69. Firstborn  165
70. Valentine's Day  166
71. Time Lost  169
72. Hugs  171
73. I Knew What Was Coming  173
74. The Real Question  175
75. For My Heart Only  177
76. Guilty by Association  179
77. Pumping Iron  181
78. I Became Him  183
79. Definitely Christmas  185
80. Sidekick for Life  187
81. The Huggy Boys  190
82. Cellar Dwellers  192
83. Your Neighbor  195
84. Beyond the Wall  198
85. Ten Cents a Minute  201
86. You Can Do It  204
87. The Kind that Never Go Away  206
88. Making It Home  208
89. Someone Was Going to Die  211
90. Sugar Rush  214
VIII. Every Day's Worth Celebrating (Facing Execution)
91. Deal the Cards  219
92. Weighing the Cost  221
93. The Envelope  223
94. Final Hours  226
95. Cruel and Unusual  228
96. Black and Mild  229
97. Something Wasn't Right  231
98. Holy Week  234
99. Dawn  235
Afterword / Timothy B. Tyson  237
Resources for Deeper Connection  249

 

About the Author

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.

Reviews

"Everyone must read this book. To read the compelling stories in these pages is to feel the birth pangs of the fundamental changes that must come. These voices bear witness that criminal justice in America has become a nation's crime unto itself.  We must measure our national stature and moral standing not by stock markets or church steeples but by the grace and humanity of the institutions that rebuild broken lives. Right Here, Right Now is the place to start."
*The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement*

“Revelatory. Having spent twenty-five years advocating for comprehensive criminal justice reform and having spent time with many innocent people in maximum security prisons, I have often found more decency and compassion amongst the people inside the prison walls than without. These first-person stories serve to remind us of the humanity and common decency that we as a society all too often push aside in our rush to judgment and punishment.”
*Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom*

"This powerful collection contains true stories from the dozens of men living on death row across the country. Some remembrances stretch back to childhood experiences of poverty and police misconduct, while other accounts pertain to life  inside the carceral system, as the writers fight to hold on to their connections to the outside world. The events of 2020 underscored systematic inequality and the injustices of the justice system; here, these firsthand accounts form a moving, personal call to action."
*IndyWeek*

"Right Here, Right Now contains moving, first-person, anonymous accounts of men living on death row. . . . With the common refrain of death row being reserved for the worst of America’s criminals, Right Here, Right Now provokes uncomfortable questions about a judicial system that disproportionately incarcerates those who are 'descendants of enslaved peoples and other people of color, the vast majority poor, and too many mentally ill,' as articulated by acclaimed death row attorney Henderson Hill in the book’s foreword."
*Indy Week*

"What is the worst thing you ever did? What drove you to do it? What would your life be like if you were defined only by that one thing? Those are some of the questions that came to mind as I read Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America’s Death Row, a collection of powerful and often wrenching first-person stories of more than 100 men sentenced to death. It’s an emotionally difficult read, but it’s more than worth the investment of time and heart."
*Washington Post*

"Right Here, Right Now is much more than a death penalty critique. At its heart, the book is about the challenge that has always faced us humans: to see the beauty, dignity, and value in every single person, and to create a society around that. What would it mean to live in a culture that looks at convicted murderers and determinedly sees the humanity there? What would it take to become a society that genuinely serves the least among us before celebrating the achievers?"
*Plough*

"Poignant. . . . This volume packs a punch and gives a voice to those whose stories need to be fully heard. Libraries, especially those seeking to expand collections related to criminal justice and the politics surrounding issues of race and class, should purchase this title."
*Library Journal*

“While there are different authors voicing their tales throughout, [Right Here, Right Now] reads as one strong voice. . . . This piece furthers our understanding of not only experiences when sentenced to death, but also the tenacity that a human can hold to still be able to grow, learn, and think deeply despite the conditions that they are living under."
*Criminal Law and Criminal Justice*