Every Sunday, Our American Stories host Lee Habeeb speaks with Mitchel "Big Mitch" Rutledge, who has spent more than forty years serving a life sentence in Alabama. Each call traces the shape of faith, regret, and forgiveness inside a place built for punishment.
When Mitch first arrived on death row, he couldn't read or write. He was given a Bible but had no way to understand it on his own. Other inmates began teaching him, one word at a time, until the stories he learned became a kind of lifeline. Then Time magazine ran a cruel story about him, and the ridicule that followed cut deep. But from that same article came a letter from Sister Lillian, a woman who saw past the headlines. Her kindness offered Mitch a sense of direction and dignity that prison had nearly taken away.