Wilbert Rideau

This one is far more complex that the book jacket description. Rideau is a talented writer who was born into an unjust time and place. The circumstances that lead to his crime don't justify the crime, but make condemning him also feel unjust. This is not a feel good story as he is a murder--he murdered a completely innocent person and fired his gun randomly into the dark hoping to kill his other hostages. He rages against the injustice of being locked up for far beyond the typical life sentence in Louisiana and to me it feels tone deaf towards his victim and her family. His tendency of praising the people who believe in him and work for his freedom and criticizing those that oppose him feels transparent. He is consistently arrogant. Yet, his resilience to make something out of his ruined life is remarkable. He's written with great skill about the experience of being a prisoner in Angola and has surely changed many lives and situations for the better. The way he writes about his life after incarceration and in particular his cat was moving. I didn't like the person, but I needed to hear his story and I'm glad I read his work.… (meer)

Curses! I did not write a journal entry about this right after I read it! So now I have to write something rather more condensed because my memory is not that sharp.

I first heard of this book in an interview on the radio. Ordered it. I had not started it when I came across a companion book by someone who was also in the same prison with Wilbert, who worked with him on the prison newspaper for a time. Eventually there was some bad blood between the two, with the second accusing Rideau of selling out, essentially. I don't know if we will ever know the truth, but I suspect that Rideau did his best to keep the newspaper alive and the other person (I can't remember his name right now) had a tendency to see injustice everywhere. Not surprising for anyone caught up in this penal system.

Rideau's account of his time in various prisons is horrifying. Not only the time in prison but the trials he had to endure, the foregone conclusions. Even after he was finally exonerated from one charge he faced additional imprisonment on trumped up charges.

One lesson we learn: don't be black and be arrested in Louisiana. Clearly there are different rules there for different races. But his story goes beyond the race bias to indict the prison system itself.

Well-written and engrossing.… (meer)

Capote-esque in its narrative, "In the Place of Justice" chronicles Wilbert Rideau's 44 year incarceration in the Louisiana penal system. Convicted at age 19 of capital murder in the Jim Crow South, Rideau's is a tale of overcoming both institutional racism and personal demons. He never shies away from the truth, including his role in his victim's death, which is a testament to his true journalistic integrity. As the NY Times Book Review stated, "Rideau is the rarest of American commodities - a man who exited a penitentiary in better shape than when he arrived."

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the pitfalls of the criminal justice system, as Rideau lays out the problems facing the incarcerated - ranging from violence, substandard resources, and rape - without sensationalizing the facts or falling victim to outrageous hyperbole. This book is also interesting, as it follows the evolution of capital punishment from the Jim Crow era, to the Supreme Court's 1972 Furman ruling, to present day. "In the Place of Justice" is a must read for anyone taking civil litigation because it puts a very human face to statutes governing capital punishment and the appeals process.… (meer)