‘An American Story’: Chris Young Was Facing Life In Prison. Then He Found The Power Of His Mind

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0:41Judge Kevin Sharp: Find furniture, hosting essentials, festive serveware, and more all in one place. So you can spend less time getting ready and more time enjoying the season with the people who make it special. Shop wayfair.com today to make holiday magic at home. Wayfair, every style, every home. Before Chris Young's life really started, it seemed like it was already over. He was only 22 when he was arrested in a federal drug conspiracy case. And because of federal mandatory minimum laws, he ultimately received two life sentences. But Chris didn't want incarceration to be the end of his story. After he came across an encyclopedia in the prison library, he quickly grasped the power of knowledge.

1:19Judge Kevin Sharp: He taught himself about everything, from finance to history and philosophy to coding. In a speech that changed his life and eventually garnered national attention, He rattled off everything he had learned to Judge Kevin Sharp before he was sentenced. Judge Sharp's hands were tied. He was bound by law to sentence Chris to life, but he was so moved by Chris's words and potential that he ultimately left the bench and joined Chris's fight for freedom. With the help of a lawyer, that judge who sentenced him to life, Kim Kardashian, and other advocates, Chris Young ultimately walked out of prison a free man after President Donald Trump commuted his sentence at the end of his first term.

1:56Judge Kevin Sharp: Chris wrote a memoir, The Wound is Where the Light Enters, and joined Forbes True Crime to discuss his story.

2:06Judge Kevin Sharp: Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a reporter with Forbes. Joining me now is Chris Young, author of The Wound is Where the Light Enters. Chris, thank you so much for joining me.

2:15Chris Young: Thank you for having me.

2:17Judge Kevin Sharp: I really appreciate you coming on, having this conversation, because your memoir tells your entire life story. So I feel like I already know you now. And it starts with your childhood in Clarksville, Tennessee. It goes into you serving two life sentences to you ultimately walking out of prison a free man. And the story is so vulnerable and it's so inspirational. It talks about everything from poverty to hope to resilience to this broken system to the repercussions of the war on drugs and so many other themes. But to start off the conversation, what was it like now looking back at those really painful moments and memories from childhood and being incarcerated and revisiting them to write about them?

3:03Chris Young: Yes, this book is a labor of love, and it is one that I put together hoping it will give people hope, motivation, inspiration, and shine a light on everything that we went through. And I say we because this is an American story, one of the children of the crack epidemic, mass incarceration. And looking back on those memories from my childhood, it makes me feel ambivalent. It makes me feel sad and it makes me feel proud. It makes me happy that I was able to overcome so many things. And I was able to endure and overcome those things because I ultimately learned the power of my mind and the power of choice.

3:47Chris Young: how every action has a reaction.

3:50Judge Kevin Sharp: You've really learned about the power of your mind when you are such a voracious reader and learner and you learned so many things while you were locked up. But when you were a kid, you also, for most of your schooling, you were getting straight A's. You were really good at school and you grew up, your older brother Robert was your protector. He was your best friend. You grew up where it seemed like your childhood was stolen from you a little bit. Your mom was, you described her as being very fierce. She taught you to stand up for yourself. She taught you to fight side by side with your brother, Robert.

4:28Judge Kevin Sharp: She also, you also witnessed her stabbing multiple partners. At one point, you lived in a home without electricity or running water for a few years. And then at one point, you moved into your grandma's best friend's house. Big mama is what you affectionately called her. You were with Robert, you were with some other kids and you called them in the book, the refugees of the war on drugs and all your parents were caught up in it through jail or addiction or some combination of both. So how did these experiences through your young childhood years, how did that impact your worldview? you? Those experiences as a child impact my worldview because my curiosity didn't get a

5:10Chris Young: chance to get nurtured and cultivated. You know, the poor child deploys imagination because of absence and the rich child employs imagination because of abundance. And so children naturally see the world differently. Children are naturally creative, but it's once they become adolescents and teenagers that they start to make those decisions that extinguish that imagination and curiosity or cultivates it and nourishes it. And unfortunately, I didn't notice that and start to nourish my curiosity and imagination until I was incarcerated. it.

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6:50Judge Kevin Sharp: And while you were in your young years, you reflected later. But at that time, the only role models in your neighborhood and in your life were drug dealers because they had money and you didn't. And you even said, hey, nobody wants to be a drug dealer. But it was almost a means to an end where you wanted money to then move on with your life. At 15, you started selling crack. You were your mom was giving you advice on how to do that and things like that, giving you guidance in that way. Once you were doing that, I mean, what was your thought process then? And when you're looking back at your young self now, what are you thinking?

7:30Chris Young: Yes, a person can't be what they can't see. You know, it's hard to fathom being a botanist and you don't know any. but my brother, Robert, he loved to plant things. He loved to garden, but we didn't see or know anyone that could make a living from that. You know, you can't be a physicist if you don't see one. And all I seen was drug dealers. And when I was incarcerated, I read Cosmos by Carl Sagan. And he said, books are like seeds, able to lay dormant, but able to flower in the most unpromising soul. And I was that unpromising soul. Once I did get a hold to some literature that could stretch and expand my worldview and what I was exposed to, I was able to start letting my imagination envision me being something other than what I had previously been all my life, which had been a drug dealer.

8:29Judge Kevin Sharp: You were really hungry for knowledge and you learned everything and you read everything. And that really started when you grabbed an encyclopedia from the jail Library. And in the book, you talk a lot about this broken system that you learned even more about while you were incarcerated that America created. And you learned while you were away that more white Americans than black Americans have used crack in their lives. But when you looked around, everyone you knew who was arrested for crimes related to crack were black. And you said this, quote, all those rich white folks driving down Main Street to Neely Alley for their bumper hit, none of them had ended up in here with us.

9:06Judge Kevin Sharp: The numbers didn't lie, only the system did. What did you learn about the system that maybe you weren't aware of as a kid?

9:15Chris Young: What I learned about the system that I wasn't aware about when I was a child that I ultimately learned while facing two mandatory life without parole sentences was that people were making decisions. Every single piece of legislation, policy, statute, law, code, all of these things came from people sitting in a room and agreeing on implementing them. But those agreements, those legislations, those policies have real ramifications on human beings, on real lives. And as I sat there In a situation where I was meant to die, meant to stay in caged until I was pronounced deceased, I realized that whether it was field order number 15, whether it was the Homestead Act, whether it was the New Deal, whether it was the 1986 crime bill, and all these different pieces of legislations had a extreme and severe impact on me and the people that I grew up around in my community it was shaped and forged by these policies and Yuval Noah Harar he says that government that society is an imagined order so the same way we imagine to create wh can imagine replacing it more humane, kind and be human beings.

10:48I think a l

10:50Judge Kevin Sharp: heard about your case, wh got national attention an was shocking that you've plus five years because o mandatory minimum senten laws. And when you laid out why exactly you got that in the book, I mean, the details are even more shocking once you read your book, because you said that the amount of crack from both your arrests equaled less than the weight of three pennies. And for all of that, and for then when you were involved in this conspiracy case that you stumbled into the last minute, you weren't even on the radar of any law enforcement, you eventually get the, because the prosecutor uses the 851 enhancement.

11:34Judge Kevin Sharp: You say he turned the law into the weapon and you were the target. When you hear that moment that you are facing now, these life sentences, what were you thinking?

11:46Chris Young: This is unbelievable that I haven't been that bad. I haven't done anything that warrants and justifies murdering me because a life without parole sentence is a death sentence. It means stay in our custody until you're pronounced deceased. And so it was unbelievable to me that the prosecutor was actually utilizing his power, his discretion that was unilateral. No one within my particular situation could stop him, not my lawyer, not the judge. And so it was unbelievable that someone was utilizing their discretion and power in that way.

12:25Judge Kevin Sharp: And I think one of the most powerful moments in the book is that you know that you're getting these mandatory life sentences, but you're hoping for a miracle. You want people to know who you are, the man you became. You want people to see your potential and you practice for a year this speech you're going to give the judge before he sentences you. And you are learning everything, absorbing everything, practicing it, going over it in the shower. You have to really jam through it, right? Because you only have a certain amount of time in the shower. You give the speech to someone that you didn't snitch on that was involved in your case when you see him in jail.

13:06Judge Kevin Sharp: And he tells you, you know, I wouldn't say that to the judge, but this speech ends up changing your life. Can you talk to us a little bit about your decision to give the speech anyway and what happened after that?

13:19Chris Young: My decision to give that speech, despite several people advised me that they wouldn't do it, including the person I speak about in the book that you mentioned, which is an older guy who I actually idolized and looked up to. and when he said don't do it I'm glad that I chose to do it because by this time I have read so much literature from James Allen as a man thank you to John Steinbeck. John Steinbeck right now his book East of Eden has been made into a series on Netflix and the through line the main topic is his indentured servant Lee coming up upon the Hebrew word which means thou mayest and thou mayest ultimately is conveying a choice.

14:14Chris Young: Free will is the greatest gift and curse humanity has. We have autonomy, we have agency and you can choose anything but you have to live with the consequence of those choices. And so by this time, I knew I wanted to convey to the court, I wanted to convey to everybody in that room that I was a human being, that please see my humanity, please see my potential, and know I could have been an astronomer, a physicist, I could have been anything other than a drug dealer had I had stability, had I not had to endure poverty. EEC, economics, education, and culture. Those three things shaped not only my life, but American life as we know it.

14:59Chris Young: And if we was to change the economics, the education, and the culture of America, I wouldn't be in the position I was in. So if you're going to murder me, please see that you're murdering a human being who is capable of way more than drug dealing.

15:16Judge Kevin Sharp: I think that was one of the most heartbreaking parts of the book is realizing all of this potential that wasn't being used because people had just fallen victim to this system, right? And there was one point when you were listening to the tapes from the wiretaps in your case, and you thought about, hey, if we had access to health care, to employment, to money, to a way out of poverty, to education, how things could have been different for everyone involved in these tapes, right? I'm curious, when people listen to your story, what do you want them to learn about the system and what do you want to be changed from this system?

15:59Chris Young: That's an amazing question. And the main thing I want people to learn about the system is that it's inanimate. The system is an idea that we came up with and humans implement. And so without the human beings actually making the decisions that they make, and putting forth the policies, the statues, and then also choosing to do certain actions with those policies and statues. That's why we have the result we have. So just blaming things on the system is a cop-out. It's an excuse because the system is inanimate. It's made up of human beings that are making decisions and choices that have real ramifications and real consequences against human beings.

16:43Chris Young: So what I would want them to do after they acknowledge that and realize that is to every day go about their day consciously making a choice to be kind to someone and to urge and encourage people in power, people in position to want change and then to make the decision to make change. You know, whether you're a police or a firefighter or a congressman or a senator or the president, everyone has the power to make a decision that is humanity's greatest gift and curse, free will. So make the choices that make this world kinder and equitable.

17:26Judge Kevin Sharp: And I think that something that was so powerful in your story was your resilience, right? even when it seemed like all hope was lost, every card was stacked against you, you were still betting on yourself. You were still researching. You were still in the library every day learning everything you possibly could. And then it seemed slowly that your team was coming together. You had your lawyer, Brittany Barnett. You had the judge who gave you two life sentences. He left the bench. Then he joined your team. Then you got one of the biggest names in the world, Kim Kardashian. She was on your side.

18:05Judge Kevin Sharp: She was voicing her support for you. She was lobbying for you. What was that like finally when it seemed like, because you know, you weren't getting visitors in jail. It felt like you were all alone to have these people in your corner. What was that moment like? It was unbelievable.

18:23Chris Young: It was shocking. It was surreal. And I was ecstatic and elated. And the main thing that made that situation come about was my faith, my belief. I kept making daily decisions, believing in something I couldn't see, believing that someone would see my potential, see my humanity, believing that somebody with a law degree, with influence, with power, would come along and try to help me. And slowly but surely, those things coalesced and came to reality for me. And that boils back to the last question you asked, what I would want people to do. I would want people to do like Judge Sharp, have the courage and the temerity to say, hey, I can choose to go along with this or I can choose to speak out against this.

19:16Chris Young: Be like Brittany K. Barnett, who was a corporate attorney and chose to help people pro bono with criminal defense. She wasn't even a criminal defense lawyer, and she was helping people with post-conviction motions and clemencies. Be like Kim Kardashian, who is one of the most famous people in the world, one of the most wealthiest people in the world, and still chose to say, hey, this is not right. I don't agree with this. And if I can use my platform, if I can use my relationships and connections to help someone, that's what I'm going to do. And that's the right thing to do.

19:52Judge Kevin Sharp: It was so powerful listening to your story because at every turn I was just like, please give this guy a chance. All he needs is one chance. And once he gets it, he will do great things with it. and Forbes was mentioned in the book so I do want to bring that up because I think when you're stuck in this circle of economic crisis or poverty the only thing on your mind is I can't afford my next meal I can't afford a roof over my head I need money I need money it gives you no room to think about anything else and there was this really powerful moment you were in jail you're watching TV, you're watching CNN, and some guy comes up to you and he's like, when you're done, can you change that to CNBC?

20:37Judge Kevin Sharp: And then from there, you realize the power of financial literacy. You're reading Forbes magazine, you're reading other financial outlets, you're learning everything you can to be financially literate, because you wonder, hey, if I or if the other guys in my neighborhood learned about dividends instead of drug weights, how different our lives could be if we had these doors open for us? Because you were entrepreneurs in your own right, but if you channeled that for legal purposes, I mean, how different your life would be. What's the importance of financial literacy and what did you learn from that?

21:14The importance of financial literacy is paramount to a person being able to survive

21:22Chris Young: in this current system, in this current state. To quote myself, to quote the book, I said, I didn't have capital, so I paid attention. And that statement by itself is loaded, and it's loaded for a reason, because we live in a capitalistic structure. And if you don't have capital, what do you pay for things with? And I was fortunate enough to realize to pay attention and to absorb information and that that information could turn into capital because economic power and political power are intertwined. And they're the two things that literally drive and shape this whole world, specifically this country, especially.

22:13Chris Young: And I know if the young men and young women where I was from was exposed to something different, they would choose something different. If the opportunities and conditions were different, they would exist in a different state. And that's why I said EEC, economics, education, and culture. Those three things right there can change the world.

22:35Judge Kevin Sharp: I think that's so powerful, especially because you said multiple times in the book, you know, all we had to idolize or to look up to were drug dealers. That's all we you in our neighborhood, we didn't know the names of successful black entrepreneurs or leaders, business leaders, CEOs, iconic figures in politics and other spaces. What do you want people to take away from your book?

23:03Chris Young: The main thing I want people to take away from my book is the power of the mind and the power of choice. Your mentality equals your reality. How you allow yourself to think, that perception will control your decisions and your decisions will determine the next situation you're in. And last but definitely not least, that we're all in this together. You know, whether I'm saying that as Americans or I'm saying that as human beings, we're all in this together. And each decision that you make, I make, has a ripple effect on all of humanity, and we need to be aware of that and be conscious of it. And that is why I'm fortunate that since I've been released, I've been making decisions, hopefully to break stereotypes and shift the paradigm.

23:51Chris Young: I went to school and I graduated from Southern Methodist University, SMU in Dallas, Texas, with a degree in economics and public policy. And I just want to read a piece from a book where I stress the fact that I've lost more brothers than I can count. Men whose laughter and loyalty fill these pages, whose names live on in this book. Their lives were cut short by the same cycles I barely escaped. When I celebrate now, I celebrate for them and for the younger ones still out there caught in the same streets we once called home. Every step I take in freedom is a prayer for the ones who couldn't make it out and a message to those still trying to find their way out.

24:38Judge Kevin Sharp: Such a beautiful passage and a beautiful, really strong message. Chris, I really appreciate you joining me for taking the time for talking about your book. Your book has been out for a little while now since the summer. Where can people find it?

24:53Chris Young: You can find it wherever books are sold Amazon, Walmart, Target, Barnes and Noble. And I'm very fortunate that these two months has been in the world. It's been a great reception and I really appreciate your time today, Brittany.

25:06Judge Kevin Sharp: Of course, the wound is where the light enters. Such a powerful, powerful, inspirational story all about resilience. Chris, thank you so much for sharing with me today.

25:32The North American Dad

25:33Judge Kevin Sharp: Observe.

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