Making Justice Our Business

Making Justice Our Business is the story of Darryl Hunt, and of those drawn to him who refused to give up on him, each other, and justice. Boyd tells the story of how one summer morning in 1985, an attractive, white newspaper editor named Deborah Sykes was raped, brutally stabbed, and murdered in a Southern town. A 911 caller gave a false name--Sammy Mitchell--and the investigation quickly focused on him and his friend, Darryl Hunt, a black nineteen-year-old orphan. Facing public pressure and having a history with Mitchell, a District Attorney won a conviction before an all-white jury, sending Hunt to prison for life.

Convinced of his innocence, a handful of people led a community effort to free him that turned into a nineteen-year struggle with a few exhilarating highs, but more discouraging, depressing defeats against an intractable justice system. Their dogged determination led to an improbable series of events in 2003 that broke the case open.

This is the story of an extraordinary man told by a white, uneasy participant who came late to the struggle but was transformed by the process.


""Stephen Boyd offers a moving account of the eighteen-year-long nightmare of Darryl Hunt. . . . In the faithful work of extraordinarily ordinary Muslims, Jews, and Christians, we see the force of divine love that wouldn't quit, and we catch a clear vision of what it takes from all of us to create a humane society where it is easier for us to truly love all our brothers and sisters.""
--Sr. Helen Prejean
author of Dead Man Walking
 
 "" . . . I suggest this book as an important read for every American citizen.""
--Maya Angelou
author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
 
 
"" . . . Let this defining volume stand as witness to the fallacy that our justice system reigns supreme; rather, what does is the human spirit that survives and is joined by others equally committed to telling the truth. . . . I am left with an overwhelming sense of awe and gratitude for Darryl's spirit and Professor Boyd's tenacity.""
--asha bandele
author of The Prisoner's Wife
 
 
"" . . . Making Justice Our Business is equal parts ringing social critique and personal faith journey. For Darryl and for all who continue to suffer unjustly, another necessary blow against the prison industrial complex has been struck.""
--Alton B. Pollard III
Howard University School of Divinity


Stephen Boyd is the John Allen Easley Professor of Religion at Wake Forest University. He is the author of Pilgram Marpeck: His Life and Social Theology (1992) and The Men We Long to Be (1996).