The Jailhouse Lawyer
"A searing and ultimately hopeful account of Calvin Duncan, "the most extraordinary jailhouse lawyer of our time" (Sister Helen Prejean), and his thirty-year path through Angola after a wrongful murder conviction, his coming-of-age as a legal mind while imprisoned, and his continued advocacy for tho...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Books Print Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
Penguin Press,
2025.
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| Subjects: | |
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| Summary: | "A searing and ultimately hopeful account of Calvin Duncan, "the most extraordinary jailhouse lawyer of our time" (Sister Helen Prejean), and his thirty-year path through Angola after a wrongful murder conviction, his coming-of-age as a legal mind while imprisoned, and his continued advocacy for those on the inside Calvin Duncan was nineteen when he was incarcerated for a 1981 New Orleans murder he didn't commit. The victim of wildly incompetent public defenders and a badly compromised witness, Duncan was left to rot in the waking nightmare of confinement. Armed with little education, he took matters into his own hands. At twenty, he filed his first motion from jail: "Motion for a Law Book," which launched his highly successful, self-taught, legal career. Trapped within this wholly corrupted system, Calvin became a legal advocate for himself and his fellow prisoners as an Inmate Counsel Substitute at the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary known as Angola. During his decades of incarceration, Calvin helped hundreds of other inmates navigate their cases, offering support to individuals the state had long since written off. Despite his tremendous work, his own case remained stalled. A defense lawyer once responded to his request for documents with a response regarding his legal status: "You are not a person." Prison reform advocate Sophie Cull met Duncan after he was released from prison and began working at her firm; Calvin began to tell her his story. Together, they've written a bracing condemnation of the criminal legal system, and an intimate portrait of a heroic and brilliant man and of his resilience in the face of injustice"-- |
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| Physical Description: | 385 pages ; 25 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780593834305 0593834305 |
| Author Notes: | Sophie Cull is a writer and criminal justice reform advocate based in New Orleans. Her collaborations include The Jailhouse Lawyer , a New York Public Library Best Book of 2025, coauthored with Calvin Duncan, and The Visiting Room Project, which formed the basis of an Emmy-nominated New York Times short documentary film. A native of Australia, she began her career assisting legal organizations defending individuals on Louisiana's death row. |
