Prodigal Son: #162844 - It's time to come home (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781512042467)

A. V. Carlington is a retired Air Force officer and aspiring author of books based on her and her families life, struggles, faith, and perseverance. She's the youngest of six kids and hails from St. Louis, MO. She has two children and her husband is from Bermuda. The Prodigal Son series took several years to bring to fruition and is inspired by her brother Willie Luckett who is serving a life sentence. By bringing her brothers story to light, she hopes to further educate others on injustices that plague those who come up poor, disenfranchised, judged on race, and are unable to pay for a decent lawyer when needed. "I understand that using race to explain injustices is probably cliché but sometimes there's no other way to comprehend the harsher punishments given to the underrepresented segments of our society." My brother was a first time offender, lacked a positive role model, and fell victim to his oppressive environment-he didn't commit a murder but was with someone who did. During his trial, my brother stood up and apologized for his role in the crime and articulated very well how drugs prevented him from stopping the crime. Only then did the jury see him as the intelligent, remorseful man he was versus the angry, black man that they'd imagined. He was given life without parole versus the death penalty. The punishment didn't fit the crime and I didn't even get into how his constitutional rights had been violated. Willie is the creative developer and facilitator of Keeping it Real thru Civility and Changing Directions I and II. As his sister, I feel it's my calling to bring his research and hard work to our communities. It's his way of repaying society and it's my way giving him a voice outside the prison walls. Believers know that God is a God of second chances. It's our hope that the courts and society give him a second chance as well.