Tom Richey
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, I flew to America in 1985 at the age of 17 and became the youngest Airborne Ranger in the US Army. When I was 18, I made the stupid and tragic decision to carry a gun and use hallucinogenic drugs. It led me to shooting two people, killing one. The next day, I turned myself in to military authorities and confessed. They turned me over to Washington State police detectives. I faced the death sentence for a year before accepting a sentence of 65 years.
All it takes is a few seconds to change your life. I never realised I was a walking hand grenade. We all are. If we pull the pin, we not only hurt our victims, the shrapnel pierces the hearts of their loved ones and our own loved ones. There's never just one victim in a crime. There are many. Even after nearly four decades in prison, it's hard to live with the knowledge I can never mend the lives of those I destroyed.
My need to make amends has, I' m sure, compelled me to help others in prison. I grasped the law after years of study, and I began to help free prisoners from wrongful convictions or unjust long sentences. This became my existence in prison, and my idea for 'Jailhouse Lawyer.' However, the series isn't based on me. I'm guilty and deserved punishment for taking a life. But I have been exposed to the cases of men coerced to plead guilty or who were essentially framed or unjustly treated by the judicial system. Some of those cases appear in my book series, and many of the situations, characters, and stories in my books are adaptations from my decades in prison.
My goal in writing the 'Jailhouse Lawyer' series is to write a bloody good yarn, sure, but also to pull back the curtain and expose the Washington State judicial and prison system for what it's really like. Through my success with the book series, it is also my goal to donate over half of all earnings to deserving charities. I think, especially for people with my history, it is incumbent upon us to make amends by positively impacting the world. I need to do more of that.
Read more about Tom Richey here.
*This website is not an actual investigative agency, but is intended to give readers of the 'Jailhouse Lawyer' book series a forum to learn more about the series, the author, the characters, and to even help contribute to the series.