Fighting Time, Paperback

The evening of April 12,1979 was clear and warm. Unaware of the danger lurking on the periphery of the French Quarter, Drs. Ronald Banks and John Hakola made a tragic decision - to walk the few blocks from the historic district to the Hyatt Regency. Inches from the safety of their hotel entrance they were accosted by two young men - a scuffle ensued, a shot fired, Dr. Banks lay dead on the sidewalk. Fighting Time tells the story of what happened next - hours, days, weeks and years after those horrible seconds. Isaac Knapper, a sixteen-year-old boy from a nearby housing project was wrongfully convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola. As the time passed, Amy, Dr. Banks's middle daughter and now a psychiatrist and trauma specialist, realized it was time to unpack her own family trauma. When Isaac was exonerated and released from prison, Amy traveled to New Orleans to meet the man wrongfully convicted of killing their father. FIGHTING TIME is the powerful true story of two families whose lives became entangled in a moment of trauma and is told with empathy, vulnerability, and grace.

About author(s):Amy Banks MD, a Harvard trained psychiatrist and Founding Scholar of the International Center for Growth in Connection, is the author of Wired to Connect: The Surprising Link Between Brain Science and Strong, Healthy Relationships and a member of the Clinical Advisory Board at the Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders. She has lectured nationally and internationally on Relational Neuroscience and maintains a psychiatric practice in Lexington, MA treating the sequelae of chronic disconnections and abuse. Isaac Knapper, head trainer of the Crescent City Boxing Gym in NOLA, is passionate about helping kids avoid the trauma he experienced in the justice system that wrongfully convicted him of murder as a teenager. Sentenced to life in prison without parole, Knapper boxed for his life holding the Department of Corrections boxing title for 9 years while in Angola. After his exoneration he boxed professionally. He has five adult children and lives in NOLA with his wife, Denise.