And there were two things about him: when I found out that he considered himself sort of a jailhouse lawyer and how he was always in the law library, and he was advocating for others for good food, for his own liberation eventually, but also even — when he founded this theater company there — Rehabilitation Through the Arts.

Sentenced to 26 years to life in prison, Martinez spent the next three decades filing writs, appeals and petitions as a self-taught jailhouse lawyer.

“I didn’t know they were supposed to do a declaration until I got with a jailhouse lawyer and he told me what they were supposed to do,” Spikes said.

With a new attitude, he began visiting the prison law library, where he met Michael “Minkah” Norwood, Lewisburg’s legendary jailhouse lawyer.

He became a “jailhouse lawyer” and filed several motions that resulted in some inmates getting their sentences reduced.