Emile Suotonye DeWeaver was about to become a father at 18 when he was sentenced to 67 years to life in prison for murder and attempted murder. In his new book, the formerly incarcerated activist details how he wrote his way out of prison over the course of the 21 years he was locked away.
The award-winning activist from Oakland, California, spoke about his new book, “Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine: Reform, White Supremacy, and an Abolitionist Future,” at the University YMCA’s weekly Friday Forum + Conversation Café on Oct. 24.
In his presentation, DeWeaver spoke about how writing served as a way to redefine his identity as a parent. He recalled meeting his child for the first time in prison through a bulletproof glass panel.
“I was just shocked by how white their eyes were,” DeWeaver said to the audience. “Those eyes followed me all the way back to my cell, and I started thinking about what those eyes were going to see – as they grew up – in me, and what society was going to teach them about me.”
From then on, DeWeaver committed to getting out of prison, despite a reality that told him he couldn’t. To get home to his child, he began the only way he knew how — writing.
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The steps taken
DeWeaver told the audience that writing became both a personal discipline and the foundation of his effort to seek freedom.
He described teaching himself to write literature in prison, beginning by borrowing a copy of the writing style manual “The Elements of Style” from a fellow inmate and hand-copying books to study sentence structure.
He began to write fantasy fiction stories and essays. He submitted his work to contests to receive feedback, which he regarded as one of the best ways to learn — even if you are rejected in the process.
“As a writer, you’re going to get way more rejections than anything else,” DeWeaver said. “But you also know that if you receive a handwritten rejection letter, you are gifted. That was my college. I learned to write in rejection letters.”
DeWeaver spoke about how important his writing communities were to his progress. He submitted to the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest every quarter and built a relationship with the contest director, Joni Labaqui.
Labaqui wrote him the “finest letter he has ever received,” encouraging him and providing him with support. He spoke to the importance of building good quality relationships, and how the networks he built across vastly different places in society helped him get out of prison.
Encouraged by his then-partner, DeWeaver spent months writing essays about his transformation and community service, along with assembling letters of support. After interviewing with the governor’s office, he ultimately became one of the few hundred Californians to have his sentence commuted by former Gov. Jerry Brown in December 2017.
“Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine”
“Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine: Reform, White Supremacy, and an Abolitionist Future” was published in May. During his presentation, DeWeaver discussed what he calls the “imagination problem,” or the belief that the impossible is often restricted by conditions such as technology, resources or beliefs.
“When someone says something is impossible, they’re referring to restrictive conditions at a static point in time,” DeWeaver said. “But life isn’t static. It exists on a timeline, and time comes with all conditions.”
DeWeaver said his book is not only a memoir of his time in prison, but also an argument for readers to rethink the United States criminal justice system and the role of race within it..
He said he weaved together a personal narrative with discussions of structural racism and how it perpetuates cycles of incarceration and erasure.
His book also emphasizes that imagination, through writing and human connection, can be a tool for liberation — and a way to redefine freedom.
“Freedom didn’t begin when I walked out of those gates,” DeWeaver said. “Freedom began when I realized that I could write my own story.”
Today, DeWeaver is the co-founder of Prison Resistance, which supports incarcerated artists and authors and seeks to support artistic growth. The group speaks regularly about criminal justice reform and creates activist circles.
