The Prison Show

It's a first Friday, so we'll only have 30 minutes of talk before going to the phone calls, but what a 30 minutes it'll be!!

Author Michael Berryhill will be joining us to discuss his new book to be released next week, The Trials Of Eroy Brown!

In April 1981, two white Texas prison officials died at the hands of a black inmate at the Ellis prison farm near Huntsville. Warden Wallace Pack and farm manager Billy Moore were the highest-ranking Texas prison officials ever to die in the line of duty. The warden was drowned face down in a ditch. The farm manager was shot once in the head with the warden's gun. The man who admitted to killing them, a burglar and robber named Eroy Brown, surrendered meekly, claiming self-defense.

In any other era of Texas prison history, Brown's fate would have seemed certain: execution. But in 1980, federal judge William Wayne Justice had issued a sweeping civil rights ruling in which he found that prison officials had systematically and often brutally violated the rights of Texas inmates. In the light of that landmark prison civil rights case, Ruiz v. Estelle, Brown had a chance of being believed.

The Trials of Eroy Brown, the first book devoted to Brown's astonishing defense, is based on trial documents, exhibits, and journalistic accounts of Brown's three trials, which ended in his acquittal. Michael Berryhill presents Brown's story in his own words, set against the backdrop of the chilling plantation mentality of Texas prisons. Brown's attorneys—Craig Washington, Bill Habern, and Tim Sloan—undertook heroic strategies to defend him, even when the state refused to pay their fees. The Trials of Eroy Brown tells a landmark story of prison civil rights and the collapse of Jim Crow justice in Texas.

Don't miss it!!

Lynda Greene will join us as we discuss the issues facing incarcerated Veterans, and who knows... we just may have a surprise or two in store!

September seems to be a busy month for weddings!  This Friday we will have the usual mailbag, and, of course, Ms. Marta, and then we will have not one, but TWO proxy marriages on the air!

This week will feature Terry and Joel and Geraldine and Charles.  We will be joined by Judge Dale Gorczynski presiding over the ceremonies!

On the down side, there is an execution scheduled this week, so we will, of course, be reporting the news on that and any other news of interest.

Tune In!

Steven Woods was executed by the State of Texas on September 13th 2011.  This is his final interview with Ray Hill, recorded on September 7th.  The interview first aired on KPFT's Execution Watch, produced by Elizabeth Stein as Steven was being executed. Posted with permission of Ray Hill.

Ray Hill is back to join David in the studio along with Marta Glass and Gloria Rubac for an ol' fashioned discussion around the domino table!

General discussion and then we start taking calls from the wonderful voices of people who care about people in prison at 9:30!!!