When he was only 26 years old, Anthony was taken into custody because the guy who had brutally murdered a family of 6 and set their house on fire said Anthony was his accomplice. It was a blatant lie from the murderer Robert Carter and yet it resulted in Anthony being behind bars for 18 YEARS, 2 months and 4 days. Though Robert would go on to retract his statement and tell the authorities he’d lied, the prosecutor, district attorneys and Texas State Rangers weren’t going to let Anthony off the hook so easily.
While he was behind bars, Anthony’s sons grew up, got married and had kids. When Anthony was eventually released, he’d become a grandfather. Imagine that!
Because of the flaws in the legal system, innocent people can and have been put to death for crimes they did not commit. In Anthony’s case, though there was no real evidence to show he’d been involved in the murders, the authorities had other considerations such as needing to have someone caught so as to assuage the fears of the public – can’t have a supposed cold-blooded murderer on the loose when it’s near election time, can you? Being poor and also ‘cos he is black, Anthony became the scapegoat of sorts.
This book is about how he survived those 18 long years, how his exoneration came about and how he came to terms with the situation – he even managed to forgive the Texas prosecutor, Charles Sebesta, who withheld information which could have led to Anthony’s release from prison a long time ago.
What would YOU do if put in prison for a crime you did not commit… and you’re behind bars for 18 years?
Would YOU be able to forgive the people who got you incarcerated in the first place… and those who kept you in there?
I’m amazed at Anthony’s tenacity. He was determined to have the State either kill him or free him. He’d not submit a guilty plea to get life imprisonment instead of a lethal injection.
“That an innocent black man was convicted wasn’t a bug in the system, I knew. It was a feature of it.”
I’m not sure how many people will take the time to read this book. Will you? 
The book cover, for one, isn’t incredibly attractive. But I think anyone who wants to be a lawyer or play some part in the legal system of any country should read books like this one. Then perhaps there’ll be fewer money-grubbing lawyers, egoistic judges and unscrupulous prosecutors. Too few people understand that a person is innocent until proven guilty. And even fewer would be willing to admit that they screwed up and had passed judgement on a guy simply because of the color of his skin.