A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom

Beginning with the spiritual significance of President Obama’s inauguration in 2009, Barnett recalls the optimism and hope she felt while in law school. Even though she had not yet graduated, she was already receiving calls for legal help. One call came from Mr. Mitchell, the father of her friend Keyon. A successful student at Texas A&M in Commerce, Keyon was “a proud father of a little girl, and months shy of graduating” (82). However, before he could do so, he was arrested on federal drug charges and given a life sentence. Keyon’s name was not on the original indictment when the authorities made multiple arrests in Paris, Texas. However, a year later, six of Keyon’s childhood friends named him as a “key player in the drug game” (87) in exchange for lighter sentences. No drugs were ever found on Keyon, yet because of the testimony from former friends and the prosecution’s portrayal of him as a “beast, a slick kingpin drug dealer, the type of irredeemable, inhuman thug that exists only in America’s racist imagination” (88), Keyon was convicted of conspiring to distribute 2 kilos of crack cocaine. The 100:1 sentencing disparity for crack cocaine and the prosecution’s invocation of