Interview with Billy Wayne Sinclair and Jodie Sinclair

Billy Wayne Sinclair A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story

Billy Wayne Sinclair

author of "A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story"
Jodie Sinclair A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story

Jodie Sinclair

author of "A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story"
Steve Murphy

Steve Murphy

Executive Producer & Host

Billy Wayne Sinclair, author of "A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story"

One of America’s most famous prisoners, Billy Wayne Sinclair, a man known to many as a latter-day Robin Hood, tells an amazing story of Crime, Courage & Redemption.

Sentenced to death in 1965 at age twenty for an unpremeditated murder during the bungled holdup of a convenience store, Billy Wayne spent his first 7 prison years on death row. When the death penalty was abolished, his sentence was commuted. Serving a total of 40 years in the Louisiana prison system—20 years at the nation’s worst prison, Angola, Billy became a well educated advocate of prison reform.

  • Largely responsible for integrating the once fiercely segregated Angola State Penitentiary
  • Respected, self-trained jailhouse lawyer who has helped hundreds of fellow inmates get a fairer deal
  • Award-winning journalist, editor of the highly respected prison journal The Angolite Whistle-blower extraordinaire, the man who blew wide open the pardons-for-sale scandal that rocked the Louisiana government and helped send key officials, such as former Governor Edwin Edwards to jail
  • Married by proxy, behind the backs of prison officials, to a pretty, feisty television anchorwoman, Jodie Sinclair, who has been his staunch supporter and helpmate for thirty years and is now his coauthor for both these amazing books.

During nine-year tenure with prison publication, the Angolite, the magazine was a finalist in the 1978 National Magazine Awards competition; a recipient of the 1979 Robert F. Kennedy Special Journalism Award; a recipient of the 1981 Sidney Hillman Award; and recipient of the 1981 and 1982 American Bar Association’s Certificate of Merit. Was an individual recipient of the 1980 George Polk Award and the 1980 American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award.

Listen to his unvarnished story taking you behind the metal doors of the Angola State Penitentiary–and other Louisiana prisons–to reveal the brutal truth of life inside.

The Book: "A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story"

ISBN: 1559705558

Get the book

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.

Jodie Sinclair, author of "A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story"

Jodie, an award winning Television Anchorwoman A Life in the Balance will leave you shaken and upset. And as Assistant Sheriff of the city and county of San Francisco, Michael Marcum, noted after reading the manuscript, it will doubtless also leave you “outraged . . . and ashamed of the criminal justice system.”

Jodie has used these ideals to assault a corrupt prison system, to champion social reform, and to preserve hope through her committed yet turbulent marriage to convicted murderer Billy Wayne Sinclair. Louisiana’s corrupt prison system, sex, violence, bribery, injustice, and a mismatched love story unfold in the nonstop, gut-wrenching pages of A Life in the Balance.

The Book: "A Life in the Balance: The Billy Wayne Sinclair Story"

ISBN: 1559705558

Get the book

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.

Steve Murphy, Executive Producer & Host