‘My prison cell became my university’: Benard McKinley’s journey to civil rights law
April 3, 2024 | The Daily Northwestern
In 2004, a judge told then 19-year-old Benard McKinley he would spend his next 97 birthdays behind bars. Last month, however, McKinley turned 39 as a free man and opened a hard-won birthday gift: an acceptance letter from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law.
With a legal career ahead of him, McKinley wants to give back to the community he once took so much from, he said.
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