BEYOND INNOCENCE

Fluidly crafted by a master journalist, BEYOND INNOCENCE makes an urgent moral call for an American reckoning with the legacies of racism in the criminal justice system and the human toll of the carceral state.

A deeply reported, gripping narrative of injustice, exoneration, and the crippling impact of incarcera-tion, BEYOND INNOCENCE is the dramatic story of Darryl Hunt, imprisoned for years for a crime he did not commit, which sheds vitally important light on the realities of the American legal system and carceral state. In June 1985, a young Black man in Winston-Salem, N.C. named Darryl Hunt was falsely con-victed and sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a white copyeditor at the local pa-per. Many in the community believed him innocent and crusaded for his release even as subsequent trials and appeals reinforced his sentence. Finally, in 2003, the tireless efforts of his attorney com-bined with an award-winning series of articles by Phoebe Zerwick in the Winston-Salem Journal led to the DNA evidence that exonerated Hunt. Three years later, the acclaimed documentary, The Trials of Darryl Hunt, made him known across the coun-try and brought his story to audiences around the world. But Hunt's story was far from over. As Zerwick poignantly reveals, it is singularly significant in the annals of the miscarriage of justice and for the leg-acy Hunt ultimately bequeathed. Part true crime drama, part chronicle of a life cut short by system-ic racism, BEYOND INNOCENCE powerfully il-luminates the sustained catastrophe faced by an innocent person in prison and the civil death nearly everyone who has been incarcerated experiences attempting to restart their lives. Freed after nine-teen years behind bars, Darryl Hunt became a na-tional advocate for social justice, and his case in-spired lasting reforms, among them a law that allows those on death row to appeal their sentence with evidence of racial bias. He was a beacon of hope for so manyuntil he could no longer bear the burden of what he had endured and took his own life. Phoebe Zerwick is an award-winning investiga-tive journalist, narrative writer, and college profes-sor. Her writing has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine; National Geographic; The Nation; the Win-ston-Salem Journal; and Glamour, among other pub-lications. Her work has been recognized by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, Columbia Uni-versity, and the North Carolina Press Association and featured in the HBO documentary "The Trials of Darryl Hunt." She is the director of the journal-ism program at Wake Forest University.