Bishop Eugene Tanniehill was a 7th grade dropout when he was convicted of a 1960 murder during an armed robbery. He was given a life sentence plus 25 years for the murder/armed robbery, and an additional 4-1/2 years for three counts of forgery. Active for the past 35 years as an inmate preacher, he is known as the Bishop of Angola. He has never had a visit.
"That's the way your life is, when you are sentenced to a penal institution, your life is scattered. You the one who got to put it back together."
"Serving time is just like a puzzle, a two thousand piece puzzle. That is, they have thrown it to you, and it is scattered every which way, they say now put it back together. That's the way your life is, when you are sentenced to a penal institution, your life is scattered. You the one who got to put it back together."
In 2007 the governor of Louisiana signed Bishop's pardon, and he was finally freed from prison. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY where he counsels troubled young adults and preaches in community churches in the area. "I have divorced the past. We in the present, and I have married the future. How's that?"
