Black Excellence: Calvin Duncan
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/14/nx-s1-5464700/the-jailhouse-lawyer-calvin-duncan
Wrongly convicted, he became ‘The Jailhouse Lawyer’ — and helped free himself
Calvin Duncan was 19 in 1982 when the police arrested him for a murder-robbery in New Orleans. The eyewitness testimony at his trial was unreliable, but Duncan’s lawyer offered only a minimal defense, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
While in prison, Duncan studied law, hoping to appeal his case. In the process he became a jailhouse lawyer — officially as part of the Inmate Counsel Substitute Program at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola.