For this episode we spoke to Lyle May, who among other things is an inmate on Death Row at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the States.

The occasion for the interview was the release of Crimson Letters, Voices from Death Row, a collection of essays that Lyle co-authored with journalist Tessie Castillo and three fellow prisoners. 

We weren’t able to discuss the specifics of Lyle’s case because it’s under appeal, but the bare details are that he was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for a double murder committed in 1997.

Instead, we discussed his upbringing and struggles with addiction, and subsequent life in prison, where lately he has written extensively about his personal experiences and the American criminal justice system in general.

The book can be purchased in Australia here.

Read more of Lyle May's writing here.

And the work of Tessie Castillo, who is also an international drug policy journalist, can be found here.

The show is brought to you by the Association of Participating Service Users (APSU), which is a service of the Self Help Addiction Resource Centre (SHARC). APSU is a Victorian consumer body that believes the voices of people with lived experience of AOD issues should be heard and incorporated into service design and delivery. 

The views expressed in this podcast are not necessarily the views of APSU or SHARC. Names and identifying details may have been changed for privacy reasons.

Music is by dbh. There’s plenty more of it here.

And there’ll be more from us. Thanks so much for listening.