Marked for Life: One Man’s Fight for Justice from the Inside

Wright recounts in this gripping memoir how his wrongful imprisonment led to his law career. In 1989, Wright was a music producer in New Jersey when he was targeted by Somerset County prosecutor Nicholas Bissell (who would later be convicted of embezzlement and tax fraud, and killed himself in a standoff with U.S. marshals) and charged as a drug kingpin, despite evidence pointing to the contrary. Wright explains how detectives and prosecutors used “institutional extortion” to offer people in his circle lessened sentences if they helped perpetuate the lies that led to his eventual incarceration. Portrayed negatively in the courtroom and by the media and saddled with an indifferent court-appointed lawyer, Wright used the prison law library to educate himself on his case and became an expert advocate for himself and many of his fellow inmates. In addition to the mechanics of the justice system, Wright viscerally details the unjust conditions inside prisons and humanizes inmates who often lack the resources to adequately defend themselves. Representing himself at his postconviction relief hearing in 1996, Wright got a detective to confess to police misconduct in the case; after his conviction was overturned, Wright earned his law degree and is currently a practicing attorney. Shot through with hard-earned wisdom and resilience, this is a powerful portrait of overcoming immeasurable odds. (Nov.)