To look at him now, you might never guess the hell that Abdul Lloyd-Bey was forced to endure as a young man.

As a boy he thought death row was his likely future because of where he lived and the color of his skin. Arrested for armed robbery at the age of seventeen, he served nearly thirteen years for his first offense while his white codefendant, a repeat violent offender, got off with just five. While serving his time within New York's most dangerous prisons, Lloyd-Bey survived three near-fatal attacks-one involving an ice pick that left him temporarily paralyzed.

But though...