Witness

Lyle C. May is a prison journalist, abolitionist, and Ohio University Alum currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in sociology, with a criminology major. He is a member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society and the Author's Guild. Lyle's writings have appeared in Scalawag Magazine, Perspectives on Politics, The Intercept, America Magazine, Inside Higher Ed, and elsewhere. Lyle is also a coauthor of Inside: Voices from Death Row (Scuppernong Editions, 2022) and contributor to Right Here, Right Now: Life Stories from America's Death Row (Duke University Press, 2021). He routinely lectures to high school and university students, church groups, and community organizations on the politics, policies, and experiences of mass incarceration. As he pursues every legal avenue to overturn his wrongful conviction and death sentence, Lyle advocates for greater access to higher education in prison.

"Lyle May is a tempered writer; he’s wise enough to trust the power in his message and to avoid overstating it. He deserves enormous respect and credit — not only for what he has already committed to paper, but for the fact that he has written at all. As May points out, incarcerated activists are not popular among those who are charged with confining them. It’s not surprising that May is no stranger to solitary confinement."—Arts Fuse

• Section A—State of Violence: Capital Punishment and Death RowOn Death Row, Eating to LiveA Confirmation of FaithSecrecy and the Death PenaltyBeyond the wallDeath Row PhenomenonJesus as a Man on Death RowLearning to DieSection B—Carceral State: Life imprisonmentLife Without Parole is a Silent ExecutionA Tale of Two HenrysParoling Michael PinchDeath by IncarcerationMob Mentality and Politics: The viral space where bad laws are madeSection C—Culture of Control: Higher Education and Prison JournalismDraconian IdealsObstructing ReformResilience and ResistanceFreeing the Press in PrisonPrison Journalism: Fighting the Narrative of ControlNC Innocence Inquiry Commission Does Not Save Every Innocent of Death RowSection D—Witness: Speaking OutThe Digital Abolitionist Twitter Feed: Lisa MontgomeryScience vs. Anti-Intellectualism and the Death PenaltyInside the Tinderbox: COVID-19 in PrisonThe Economics of Capital PunishmentQualified ImmunityWhen the Thermometer BreaksThe Myth of DeterrenceNo Man Left BehindSection E. ActivismFront Line Snapshots of ActivismOn Retaliation against Incarcerated WritersThe Hole: To Live Means to ResistThe Fury of Our Resistance