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Outlook: The words that saved John Dwayne

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John Bunn (credit: Great Big Story)

27/04/2019 GMT

The words that saved John Dwayne

BBC World Service - Outlook, The words that saved John Dwayne

A wrongfully convicted illiterate teenager found his freedom in books and letters

John Dwayne Bunn went to prison at 14 years old for a murder he did not commit. He learned to read behind bars, and used books and letters to free his mind.

When John Dwayne Bunn was 14, he was convicted of a murder that he didn't commit. 

He'd grown up in Brooklyn in the early 1990s, where his world had revolved around back flipping onto broken mattresses with his friends. He lived in the Kingsborough Projects,  an area seething with crime, gun violence and racial tension, and amidst this chaos, no one had noticed that he was illiterate. 

While in prison, alone, afraid and desperate to tell his mother how much he loved her, he began teaching himself to read. Through letter writing and reading, he discovered a new kind of freedom that would help him get through this nightmare.

Image: John Bunn
Credit: Great Big Story

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