American Prisoner

American Prisoner is a close-up look at one of the largest home-grown drug dealers, and the way he is trapped for over a quarter of a century by his own country.

The story reveals how a young black, collegiate football player, the eldest son of a poor, southern Baptist preacher gets entangled in the drug trade, rising to a major trafficker to losing everything. Thomas Ray Kennedy is hunted by the DEA and FBI, regarding his decade-long involvement in drug trafficking.

Kennedy has no idea, Tina, his partner in crime is a high, level FBI informant. After he breaks off their business as well as personal relationship because of her heavy cocaine use, the FBI eliminates her, laying the blame at Kennedy’s feet. Finally captured, he’s facing the death penalty. The prosecutor drops the murder charge, feeling he can’t convict but he's confident that Kennedy will lose the battle at jury trial on the Kingpin allegations.

The deck is certainly stacked against Kennedy. The government is propagandizing the “crack baby” lie, demonizing drug dealers by reporting, mothers on crack deliver non-responsive babies. Anyone with a soul didn’t want to see a baby injured, resulting in a large number of people buying into this story, even conscious drug dealers. The whole world begins to hate people associated with this dark and evil underworld marketplace, not realizing the sole reason for its existence is the federal government.

With one stroke of the gavel, the judge’s decree is swift and final. Kennedy would never be a free man again. Unbelievable, considering he had never committed murder. Refusing to accept this “death by incarceration” sentence, he becomes a jailhouse lawyer and learns how to defeat this absurd imprisonment.

During his journey, he realizes that he had been a prisoner long before the physical confinement – just as anyone is, that’s been ensnared by an incorrect mindset. This discovery sets his mind free, and after twenty-five long, grinding years, he finds the path back to civilization.

We are all American Prisoners, sometimes by our own design, often by the design of others. Each person has the power to recognize imprisonment – of whichever type – then realize freedom!