"I had access to resources only after I was incarcerated": an interview with Adnan Khan, executive director of Re:Store Justice

Plus links that explain felony murder and major congratulations to Lina Khan!

Dear all,

Happy Juneteenth & Happy Father’s Day!

We were honored to speak to Adnan Khan, a formerly incarcerated person and advocate who spent sixteen years in prison in California. He is the executive director of Re:Store Justice, which he founded while there. 

Muslim and Pakistani American, Adnan was arrested at eighteen on a felony murder conviction. In January 2019, the California legislature passed a bill scaling back prosecution of felony murder, a criminal law doctrine that allows defendants to be convicted of first-degree murder if a victim dies during the commission of a felony. 

Adnan was the first to be released following the bill’s passage. Today, in addition to his advocacy at Re:Store Justice, he’s known for his brilliantly lucid tweets. (You may remember, from a previous newsletter, a particularly moving thread around Ramadan about how prison discourages kindness and charity to others.)

We first met Adnan when one of our students invited him to a virtual conference on priso…