About the Book
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.
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.
Review :
"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." - Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and author of (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.” - Jason Flom, host of the podcast (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." - Sarah Edwards (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." - Thomasi McDonald (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." - Steven Petrow (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?" - Amanda Abrams (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." - Mattie Cook (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."
- AM Purdy (Criminal Law and Criminal Justice)
