Franklin Pastor Kevin Riggs teams up with death row Pastor Kevin Burns for new book

Around two dozen people gathered in Franklin on Sept. 26 to celebrate the launch of a new book by Tennessee death row inmate and Pastor Kevin Burns and his co-author, Franklin pastor and anti-death penalty advocate Dr. Kevin Riggs.

Today! - The Best Day of My Life chronicles the life, imprisonment and faith of the 55-year-old Burns, who saw the exhaustion of his last legal options in 2023. Burns has been imprisoned since being arrested on his 23rd birthday in 1992.

That incident saw Burns caught up in a gunfight in Shelby County that killed two people — Damon Dawson and Tracey Johnson — and put three others, including Burns, in prison for murder.

The two other men were each given life sentences and both have since been released on parole. Crucial arguments that could have spared Burns from death row weren't made during his 1995 trial. Burns and his current lawyer Richard Tennent, an assistant federal defender, have described the actions by his then-lawyers as legal negligence.

"You shouldn’t be able to receive the death penalty if you didn’t actually kill someone," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued in her 2023 dissent (joined by Justices Kentanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan) when the court ultimately refused to take up the case.

Riggs has spent years visiting death row and forging relationships with its inmates, and in 2018, Riggs ordained Burns — also known to friends as KB,  Pastor KB, or just Kevin — inside of Nashville’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. Riggs now considers Burns his pastor.

The book is a culmination of that relationship building. Riggs visited death row multiple times a week for months with a prison-approved pen and notebook, working as both a scribe and collaborator. 

“KB would tell stories, and then I would just write down everything, and then go back and write as if I'm KB, and then take it back to KB, he’d read over and say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’" Riggs said.

“That was the process that we did, and I basically didn't do anything but that for three months and actually finished it on a cruise.”

Burns serves at both Riverbend’s The Church of Life and at Franklin Community Church, where he preaches through recorded phone calls.

About 45 minutes into the book launch event, Burns called in to a cell phone of an attendee — one of the few people on his approved call list — where he spoke to the crowd on speaker phone.

Burns spoke of his time in prison, his experiences leading the death row ministry and the process and impact of writing the book with Riggs.

“I don't know if any of you know how it feels to be muzzled or to feel like you've been muzzled and not able to speak on your own behalf, [to have] other people speaking for you, but for me to have that opportunity to tell my story, it was like a release for me,” Burns said through the crackling phone line.

“Finally, [it’s] just like a weight off of my shoulders, off my chest, feelings both of joy and sometimes of struggle, remembering stuff, talking about stuff you really don't want to talk about, but overall, just thinking about how far God has brought me and how he's been faithful to me every step of the way," Burns continued. "I've never, not one moment, felt alone. I've always felt the presence of God with me.”

While Riggs and Burns share their faith in God, they are also hoping to earn the faith of Gov. Bill Lee, who is Burns’ last hope of escaping death row.

Riggs has worked to advocate on Burn's behalf to Lee in the form of letters all while Lee suspended executions in Tennessee in 2022 and appointed new leadership in 2023, which could see the return of capital punishment in the state.

“The more we get the word out, the more hands that the book gets into, then the more likely that it'll find its way to the powers that be who can make the decisions,” Riggs told The News. "Gov. Lee's a man of faith, and he knows this story, and I'm just, I'm hoping he does read the book…and that it'll do what it needs to do in his heart to see that KB deserves clemency, and then he deserves parole.”

Burns closed his remarks with a prayer, everyone's heads bowed in faith, some 20 miles separating the faithful free from Burns in captivity, but with that shared faith connecting them despite the distance.

“We can proudly call this [that] today is the best day of my life, and we understand that you are with us and when you are with us and if you are with us, you are more than the world,"

"You have one minute remaining" an automated voice interjected. 

“Lord, we love you. We always praise you, in Jesus' name, Amen.”

“Amen,” the crowd responded.

Today! - The Best Day of My Life can be purchased at bookstores or online, with proceeds from the book benefitting Franklin Community Church's Floods of Justice advocacy ministry.