A Life In The Balance

In 1965, at the age of twenty, Billy Wayne Sinclair unintentionally killed a man in a bungled convenience store hold-up. Quicky tried and convicted, he was sentenced to death and spent the next seven years on death row. In 1972, his sentence was commuted to life. Sinclair has spent his time in prison trying to improve the heinous conditions. At great personal risk, he was instrumental in integrating The Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Working undercover for the FBI inside the prison, he exposed a pardon-for-sale scheme at Angola that involved highly placed state and prison officials. Prisoners who bought pardons were released. Sinclair is still behind bars.

Billy Wayne Sinclair has been in prison for thirty-five years. Though judged an exemplary prisoner, all his petitions for parole have been turned down.