Law Beat: How an Albany judge threw the book at a defendant

The story of Darryl Smith’s criminal record may not be a book -- but it includes one.

When the 34-year-old man pleaded guilty in September to weapon possession in the fatal Feb. 8 shooting of 19-year-old Irving Lamboy, Smith’s plea agreement included prison time, post-release supervision and a much rarer requirement: A book report.

This was no grade school assignment.

Albany County Judge Andra Ackerman, who presided over Smith’s case, ordered Smith to read and report on “Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death and Redemption in An American Prison,” by Shaka Senghor, a New York Times best-selling author, consultant and speaker.

As a teenager on Detroit’s east side, Senghor suffered beatings by his mother and turned to crime, running crackhouses. At 18, he was shot. At 19, he went to prison for murder. Senghor spent 19 years behind bars, including seven in solitary confinement, for the crime.

In prison alone, Senghor received a letter one day from his eldest son, Jay, who was about 11. The boy wrote: "Dear Dad, my mother told me you was in prison for murder. Dear Dad, don't murder anymore. Jesus watches what you do. Pray to him, and he'll forgive your sins."

Senghor experienced an epiphany.  He began to read Plato, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, as well as his own writings. When Senghor left prison, correction officers told him: "We'll see you in six months." Instead, he turned his life around, as Senghor told an audience in 2017 at the University at Albany's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.

In 2016, Ackerman was in her first year as a Cohoes City Court judge when she saw Senghor’s interview with Oprah Winfrey on the talk show star’s SuperSoul Conversations. Ackerman explained she had been thinking about one of her first cases, which involved a young person with an upbringing she found similar to her own (Ackerman grew up in foster care in the Capital Region).

“I was intrigued, immediately ordered the book and read the whole thing in one day,” Ackerman told Law Beat.

Ackerman said the case – and the book – inspired her program, U-CAN (United Against Crime-Community Action Network), a mentoring program for defendants between 16 and 21. They conditionally plead guilty to a nonviolent crime and, if they successfully complete a year of mentoring and stay out of trouble, their plea is expunged.

Read the full article as it originally appeared in the Times Union. By, Robert Gavin