The Sun Does Shine
In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested in Alabama and convicted of two murders he did not commit, based on flawed evidence and a justice system stacked against a poor Black man who could not afford a strong defense. This 2018 memoir recounts the nearly thirty years he spent on death row, where he was held in a cramped cell awaiting execution for a crime he had nothing to do with. Hinton describes the despair of his early years and how he slowly rebuilt an inner life, using imagination, books, and humor to survive, and forming bonds with other condemned men. His case was eventually taken up by attorney Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative, leading to his release in 2015. Written with warmth and startling grace, the book is both an indictment of a broken capital justice system and a powerful tribute to resilience.
What you might want to know about The Sun Does Shine
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A Black man wrongfully convicted of murder in Alabama spends nearly thirty years on death row before his exoneration, and tells how he held onto hope and humanity.
Yes. It is Anthony Ray Hinton's memoir of being wrongfully convicted of murder in Alabama and spending nearly thirty years on death row before his exoneration in 2015.
Attorney Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative took up his case, which eventually led to his exoneration and freedom after almost three decades.
The Sun Does Shine was written by Anthony Ray Hinton, published in 2018 by Penguin Random House.
The Sun Does Shine is 272 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Sun Does Shine takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
The Sun Does Shine is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.