Beyond Innocence

A deeply reported, gripping

narrative of injustice, exoneration, and the lifelong impact of incarceration, Beyond

Innocence is the poignant saga of one remarkable life that sheds

vitally important light on the failures of the American justice system at every

level

In June 1985, a young Black man in Winston-Salem, N.C.

named Darryl Hunt was falsely convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the

rape and murder of a white copyeditor at the local paper. Many in the community

believed him innocent and crusaded for his release even as subsequent trials

and appeals reinforced his sentence. Finally, in 2003, the tireless efforts of

his attorney combined with an award-winning series of articles by Phoebe

Zerwick in the Winston-Salem Journal led to the DNA evidence

that exonerated Hunt. Three years later, the acclaimed documentary, The

Trials of Darryl Hunt, made him known across the country and brought

his story to audiences around the world.

But Hunt's story was far from

over. As Zerwick poignantly reveals, it is singularly significant in the annals

of the miscarriage of justice and for the legacy Hunt ultimately bequeathed.

Part true crime drama, part chronicle of a life cut short by systemic racism, Beyond

Innocence powerfully illuminates the sustained catastrophe faced by

an innocent person in prison and the civil death nearly everyone who has been

incarcerated experiences attempting to restart their lives. Freed after

nineteen years behind bars, Darryl Hunt became a national advocate for social

justice, and his case inspired lasting reforms, among them a law that allows

those on death row to appeal their sentence with evidence of racial bias. He

was a beacon of hope for so many--until he could no longer bear the burden of

what he had endured and took his own life.

Fluidly crafted by a master

journalist, Beyond Innocence makes an urgent moral call for

an American reckoning with the legacies of racism in the criminal justice

system and the human toll of the carceral state.