I kind of figured what would happen after Adam Liptak from the New York Times called to say he was going to write a follow-up piece to his 2010 article about my life and legal successes while in prison. After the article in the Times, my wife Annie and I had a crazy couple of weeks that included phone calls and emails and interviews.
So, we expected what would happen after the New York Times published Adam’s new piece about my life as a law school student and future clerk to Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
Since the piece was published, I’ve received hundreds of emails from lawyers and friends. More importantly, I’ve received hundreds of emails from current and future prisoners, and their family members. For better or worse, my life and success represents some hope for them. And that is exactly what motivates me to push for criminal justice reform.
Through the media craziness, I had a wonderful dialogue with the federal judge that sentenced me 14 years ago. And Judge Richard G. Kopf agreed to conduct an NPR interview with me (you can listen to it here). The follow up NPR letter segment was even better because it highlighted the difficulties that felons have in finding employment. And all the media stuff has led to some thinking and discussing of ways to help felons find employment, which prevents recidivism, which makes our communities safer and saves tax payer dollars.
And it’s not over. Annie and I are waiting to hear when our Inside Edition interview will run and on October 10th, the both of us will film an interview about personal redemption on the Katie Couric Show.
We are very blessed, indeed.
Here is some more media stuff: here, here, here, here, and here.