Oprah Winfrey has selected death row inmate Jarvis Jay Masters’ That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row as the latest pick for her influential book club.
Masters’ book, published in 2009 by HarperOne, tells the story of his life, from growing up the child of heroin-addicted parents to the decades he’s spent in California’s San Quentin State Prison.
Masters has been incarcerated there since the age of 19, when he was convicted of armed robbery. A few years later, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in connection to the stabbing death of a prison guard, and sentenced to death; he maintains his innocence, and there’s an active campaign to have his conviction overturned on appeal.
“Masters spent over twenty years in solitary confinement, and remains on death row today, for a crime he says he did not commit—and his appeal will be heard in federal court in late October,” Winfrey wrote on Instagram. “He’s a gifted writer with an unforgettable story, sharing a powerful message of hope and endurance as well as deep insight into how our childhood experiences shape who we become.”
Masters told Oprah Daily that he originally wrote the book in the hopes that young people would read it and learn from his mistakes.
“Thanks to Ms. Winfrey and her book club, my story will be introduced to a national audience,” he said. “It is my greatest hope…that lives will be the better for it, and I am forever grateful for the honor and the opportunity that Oprah has afforded me.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
