Just to Be Free: Searching for Hope in a Death Sentence

Just to Be Free: Searching for Hope in a Death SentenceWillie Green grew up in Canton, Mississippi, and he never saw any white people unless he went across the railroad tracks. But his mothers best friend was white, and whenever they met, they pressed their hands together. This simple act showed him that everyone could get alongsomething that would stay with him when the Civil Rights Movement swept through the nation. But after helping a cousin move his things out of a girlfriends placethings that in

Willie Green grew up in Canton, Mississippi, and he never saw any white people unless he went across the railroad tracks.

But his motherÕs best friend was white, and whenever they met, they pressed their hands together. This simple act showed him that everyone could get alongÑsomething that would stay with him when the Civil Rights Movement swept through the nation.

But after helping a cousin move his things out of a girlfriendÕs placeÑthings that in fact, belonged to herÑGreen was arrested for burglary. When that same girl ended up dead, he was convicted of murder.

HeÕd end up spending twenty-five years in prisonÑmost of them in San QuentinÑafter a witness who had been high on cocaine and pressured by police blamed him for the crime.

Green would not be freed until 2008, after the witness set the record straight. He looks back on a life defined by unexpected turns, race relations, his despair while on death row, and how he found hope and freedom in Just to Be Free.