Soros Justice Fellowships

A grant to Wilbert Rideau to write his autobiography, The Truth Shall Set You Free, detailing the inner workings of the criminal justice system, the politics of race and justice, and his 44 years spent at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Rideau was sentenced to death in 1961 at the age of 19 by an all-white, all-male jury in a trial criticized for "kangaroo court proceedings" by the United States Supreme Court. After his third trial and death sentence, he was re-sentenced to life imprisonment in 1973 following Furman v. Georgia. On death row, he began a self-education process that continues today. In 1976, he became editor of The Angolite, the prisoner-produced newsmagazine of the Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Over the next quarter-century, he won many of American journalism's highest awards, including the prestigious George Polk Award, for his contribution to public understanding of the criminal justice and prison systems. In 1979, he was the first prisoner ever to receive the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award for "Conversations with the Dead," an investigative expose that resulted in the release of a number of long-term inmates "lost" in the Louisiana prison system. In 1996, he became the only prisoner ever to receive the Louisiana Bar Association's highest journalistic honors, for co-producing the documentary The Execution of Antonio James. In 1998, he co-directed the documentary The Farm: Angola, USA, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was nominated for an Academy Award. He is the co-editor of The Wall Is Strong: Corrections in Louisiana, now in its fourth edition, and Life Sentences, an anthology of articles from The Angolite.

Baton Rouge, LA |  1 Year |