by Gary Tyler with Ellen Bravo
Atria/One Signal Publications
10/7/2025, hardcover
SKU: 9781668097328
In the tradition of books by Albert Woodfox and Angela Davis, this gripping memoir of a wrongful conviction and time spent on death row in Angola prison shows how incarcerated people care for each other and fight for justice
In 1975, seventeen-year-old Gary Tyler was sent to Angola prison to die. A year earlier, he had been wrongfully charged with the killing of a white teenager and found guilty by an all-white jury, making Gary the youngest prisoner on death row in the United States
Following his conviction, Amnesty International and investigative reporters documented the brutal treatment, fabricated evidence, recanted testimony, and repeated injustices that led to his sentencing. Three times Gary was recommended for a pardon; three times Louisiana governors refused to accept the political risk. After more than four decades in prison, Tyler was released in 2016--but he was never exonerated.
This is not a story of mistaken identity or circumstantial evidence, but one of systemic injustice from an institution hard-wired into a legacy of slavery--in effect, this was a legal lynching. While detailing the injustice, Gary's memoir is also a remarkable story of pride, forgiveness, community, and triumph. With insight and heart, he shows how he learned to reject bitterness and fight for freedom, helped by activists such as Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace on the inside and relentless support from a mass movement on the outside. Stitching Freedom is the page-turning narrative with which Gary reclaims his power.
Reviews:
"What's most moving about this extraordinary book isn't Gary Tyler's innocence, but his resilience and steadfast commitment to justice for all in a system designed to oppress, divide and destroy. He came to understand that system and transcend it because of the loving support and education from people in maximum security who'd been labeled the 'worst of the worst.' In the drama club and throughout his time at Angola, Gary Tyler exemplified the club's motto, 'We are the Willing' - becoming a man willing to provide care, fight injustice and create beauty. Now he's willing to tell the truth about what happened and why, to magnify defiance and hope." -- Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
"As moving and important a book as I have read in eons. Tyler's struggle to hold onto his humanity and emerge battered but triumphant is a powerful story unto itself, but that's not why people should read this book. Tyler's journey urgently matters given the ways that dehumanizing prisoners and debasing constitutional due process have become a central feature of US politics. His story acts as a bracing condemnation of an administration off the rails; an administration that regularly mocks and debases those trapped in a deeply racist prison industrial complex. Tyler and his co-author Ellen Bravo have gifted us all a chance to look in the mirror. May we be brave enough to open our eyes." -- Dave Zirin, author of The Kaepernick Effect
About the Contributors:
Gary Tyler is an artist and a spokesperson for justice. During his years in prison, Tyler galvanized a movement that grew to have national and international support, one of the precursors to today's abolition and Black Lives Matter movements. He was recently awarded the 2024 Frieze LA Impact Prize, which recognizes artists who use their talents and abilities to address social justice issues. Stitching Freedom is his first book.
Ellen Bravo's connection to Gary Tyler began in July 1976, when she marched with two thousand others in New Orleans demanding his freedom. A long-time activist, Bravo has written three nonfiction books about working women and two novels, Again and Again and Standing Up. Among Bravo's commendations is the Ford Foundation's Visionary Award.