Death Row Chaplain: Unbelievable True Stories from America's Most Notorious Prison

In this sometimes inspiring, sometimes pedantic memoir, Smith recounts his years as a rebellious, drug-running, gun-toting teenager from a broken family, when he roamed the streets of Stockton, Calif., and his subsequent reinvention as the chaplain at San Quentin prison. Most of Smith's friends and family believed he was headed for a life behind bars, but his life changes miraculously after he's shot and critically injured. Lying in bed, he hears a voice loud and clear telling him that he's not going to die%E2%80%94and that he's going to be the chaplain at San Quentin. Smith, a powerful storyteller, describes learning about the power of forgiveness eight years after the shooting when he meets Ace, the man who shot him, who is now a prisoner. He also meets Black Panther leader Huey Newton and starts up a chess relationship with Charles Manson, who's not a "very good chess player, but he has an extraordinary mind and masterful way of influencing people." In spite of Smith's flat-as-pavement prose and his penchant for hyperbole, his stories reveal the power of redemption in the lives of those whom society thinks are unsalvageable. (May)