Witness - by Lyle C May

About the Book

"No outside journalist can adequately report what happens inside death row or what it is like to live through thirty-three executions of people you know. Lyle C. May has spent more than twenty-five years of his life on North Carolina's congregate death row. May's grounded writings in Witness challenge the myths, misconceptions, and misinformation about the criminal legal system and death in prison. With a foreword by activist, lawyer, and professor Danielle Purifoy, and drawing on the work of Angela Y. Davis, Mariame Kaba, and other abolitionist scholars, Witness shows there is more to life under the sentence of death than what is portrayed in crime dramas or mass media. May's life, journalism, and activism are a guidebook to abolitionism in practice." --back cover.

Book Synopsis

A first-hand account of the death penalty's wholly destructive nature.
In Witness, Lyle C. May offers a scathing critique of shifts in sentencing laws, prison policies that ensure recidivism, and classic "tough on crime" views that don't make society safer or prevent crime. These insightful and analytical essays explore capital punishment, life imprisonment, prison education, prison journalism, as well as what activism from inside looks like on the road toward abolishing the carceral state.

No outside journalist can adequately report what happens inside death row or what it is like to live through thirty-three executions of people you know. May's grounded writings in Witness challenge the myths, misconceptions, and misinformation about the criminal legal system and death in prison, guiding readers on a journey through North Carolina's congregate death row, where the author has spent over twenty years of his life.

With a foreword by activist, lawyer, and professor Danielle Purifoy, and drawing on the work of Angela Y. Davis, Mariame Kaba, and other abolitionist scholars, Witness shows there is more to life under the sentence of death than what is portrayed in crime dramas or mass media. Lyle C. May's life, journalism, and activism are a guidebook to abolitionism in practice.

Review Quotes

"Lyle May is a tempered writer; he's wise enough to trust the power in his message and to avoid overstating it. He deserves enormous respect and credit - not only for what he has already committed to paper, but for the fact that he has written at all. As May points out, incarcerated activists are not popular among those who are charged with confining them. It's not surprising that May is no stranger to solitary confinement." -Arts Fuse

"Lyle May is a tempered writer; he's wise enough to trust the power in his message and to avoid overstating it. He deserves enormous respect and credit -- not only for what he has already committed to paper, but for the fact that he has written at all. As May points out, incarcerated activists are not popular among those who are charged with confining them. It's not surprising that May is no stranger to solitary confinement." --Arts Fuse

About the Author

Lyle C. May is a prison journalist, abolitionist, and Ohio University Alum currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in sociology, with a criminology major. He is a member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society and the Author's Guild. Lyle's writings have appeared in Scalawag Magazine, Perspectives on Politics, The Intercept, America Magazine, Inside Higher Ed, and elsewhere. Lyle is also a coauthor of Inside: Voices from Death Row (Scuppernong Editions, 2022) and contributor to Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America's Death Row (Duke University Press, 2021). He routinely lectures to high school and university students, church groups, and community organizations on the politics, policies, and experiences of mass incarceration. As he pursues every legal avenue to overturn his wrongful conviction and death sentence, Lyle advocates for greater access to higher education in prison.