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Title: A Life in the Balance : The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story by Billy Wayne Sinclair ISBN: 1-55970-590-6 Publisher: Arcade Books Pub. Date: 18 February, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story
Comment: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story
Reviewed by: Richard R. Blake
From the first page to the last, the reader is drawn into the life of Billy Wayne Sinclair. Sinclair relates how he was beaten and abused as a child, entered a life of crime as a teenager, and was convicted of murder, in 1965 at the age twenty. The writing is superb. Descriptions are graphic.
Sinclair was originally sentenced to death. His sentence was reduced to life in prison in 1972 after the U.S. Supreme Court voided then-existing death penalty laws. Gov. Buddy Roemer commuted his sentence to 90 years in 1992.
Events that span over thirty-five years are related in a narrative that details multi layers of political corruption in the Louisiana State Prison System. After years of operating on a code of loyalty established by prison inmates, the author took on a personal code of ethics. Sinclair, at great personal risk has been unwilling to compromise these new values and has exposed avarice, crime, and corruption within the parole and corrections community.
This is must reading for all elected officials in community, state, and national politics and anyone involved in prison administration, prison reform or prisoner's rights. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 3
Summary: A compelling and sad story
Comment: I tend to read a lot of nonfiction, at least in the last few years, but I have read lots of fiction and enjoy a great story. I mention this because much of this book reads as if the author was writing a fictional story about prison, yet was doing a poor job of it. The fact that it is a personal memoir and meant to be a true account of the struggles of the author makes it a fascinating read and I'll admit that I was able to tune out the outside world for a few reading sessions over a couple a days as I burned through the pages.
What made some of the reading difficult was keeping up with all the names and events and the general time line. It got confusing at times.
But the actions of people that interacted with the author were clear enough to present an engaging story, and anyone that is interested in the world of prisons and criminals doing hard time during the period of the book will find this work interesting. Most of the hard core story telling happens from the mid sixties through the seventies and into the eighties. There is stuff going on in the nineties here but the story starts to lose some of its steam.
As for the politics of the story and the expose' of the corruption, if the author is to be believed, and I think he presented a very strong case (although alternative arguments are not really here) then the conclusion can be clearly drawn; there is and has been a lot of corruption in the Louisiana prison system. As for my personal feelings after my reading I think that I mostly chose to believe what the author has to say, the prison system is filled with corruption and the justice system is filled with unfairness.
That being said, although I agree that the author is a "changed man", I didn't change my opinion of the death penalty after reading his story. While I don't think he needs to be singled out for special punishment now, I think that the first unfairness was that he didn't receive the death penalty shortly after conviction. Using a gun while committing a felony should carry the death penalty. Life is precious and valuable and we show complete disrespect to the victims of violent crime when we as a people fail to administer fair and impartial justice.
The author complains that many murderers have been released while he was passed over for parole. And I agree that there is an injustice here, but it isn't to him, it is to the victims and the victims families of those predators being released. Life in prison should mean life and the death penalty should mean the death penalty.
All in all I recommend this book to anyone interested in a story about prison life and the struggle of one man that was sent to prison yet still found a way to bring something redeeming to this world. I was disappointed that even though he grew up, matured, came into a realization that he had devastated many lives by killing someone that was loved and found a way to stand up to prison injustices he doesn't mention any help from God or at least a "higher power". It seems that he healed and cured himself. If this is not true than the book left out some important details. I am not saying he should have made something up, of course, but if his redemption was "self willed" than reading about it has little value as the vast majority of us simply aren't that great.
In either case the book is an entertaining and compelling story and I wasn't disappointed in the time I spent reading it.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Life In The Balance
Comment: This is the best book I've ever read, hands down. It gave all the facts, good or bad, along with the consequences. I do not usually have sympathy for prisoners but this is an exception. This is a perfect example of the people in charge being more corrupt than the prisoner. It shows that trying to do the right thing after making a mistake in your youth only results in more punishment and the corrupt people win. It is a sad thing to know that our leaders in politics are so often more corrupt than the prisoners. I would love to read another book by the Sinclairs telling "the rest of the story". I admire Jodi Sinclair and I'm not sure anyone else would have this dedication after all the "knockdowns" in her life. I wish them the best life has to offer in their future. They have paid enough.
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Title: The Hot House : Life Inside Leavenworth Prison by Pete Earley ISBN: 0553560239 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 February, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Inside Rikers : Stories from the World's Largest Penal Colony by Jennifer Wynn ISBN: 0312261799 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 25 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: You Got Nothing Coming: Notes from a Prison Fish by JIMMY A. LERNER ISBN: 0767909186 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 12 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Behind Bars: Surviving Prison by Jeffrey Ian Ross, Stephen C. Richards ISBN: 0028643518 Publisher: Alpha Books Pub. Date: 07 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Life in Prison by Stanley "Tookie" Williams, Barbara Cottman Becnel ISBN: 1587170949 Publisher: SeaStar Books Pub. Date: February, 2001 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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