November 30, 2025 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, every Sunday, Our American Stories host Lee Habeeb speaks with Mitchel "Big Mitch" Rutledge, who has spent more than forty years serving a life sentence in Alabama. Each call traces the shape of faith, regret, and forgiveness inside a place built for punishment.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories.
This next story is about a friend of mine. We're
close in age, but have little else in common. Mitchell
Rutledge aka Big Mitch, was born black and poor in Georgia.
I was born kind of brown and middle class in
New Jersey. He never met his father. I still talk
(00:33):
to my ninety four year old father every week. He
dropped out of high school in his early teens and
was illiterate into his early twenties. I was surrounded by
books growing up and finished graduate school in my early thirties.
Big Mitch spent the last forty four years of his
life in Alabama prisons for killing a man. But this
(00:55):
is not a story about an innocent man sentenced to
prison for a crime he didn't commit. Big Mitch never
denied the crime or made excuses for it. This is
the story of my friend's spiritual transformation while serving his
life sentence. It's also about a friendship. Only God could
(01:15):
have engineered a friendship that began with a single Sunday
morning call. Through these weekly conversations, I hope you come
to know and love him as much as I do.
Here's episode six. My conversation. On February eighteenth, twenty twenty four,
will Mitch kick things off reading one of his original poems,
(01:37):
Invitation to Love.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
This is a free call from an incarcerated individual at
Alabama Department of Corrections. To accept this pree call press
one to refuse this pre call press too. Thank you
for ucing securis. You may start the conversation now.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Coming up as a youth, I never really understood love
because when I was coming up, I don't think I
was told I was loved well one time, but I
knew my mother loved even though she never said it.
But it was just something there that the way, the
thing she did and what she did show me she loved.
(02:22):
I knew that type of love right there, but just
never just really understood love. So, traveling through life, I
always thought when people said that they loved you that
it was a joke because I never really heard it.
I think I heard it one time from my great
great aunt and she would always say, well, I loved
(02:43):
you a little rout because she said I look like
my grandfather. But I never saw it when I was
out there in society, never saw it in the streets,
and and it it just was a word that I
just didn't believe it. I I thought, I thought it
was a joke. So when I meant sister Willian and
she told me that she loves me, well I didn't
(03:09):
understand it for real. Well she meant it because I
heard it so many times, so I really didn't believe it.
But as time went on, I realized that she really
did loved me. And so what I did as time
went on, I written a poem type of invitation to love.
(03:30):
And I written it because of her and the love
that she introduced me to her and let me know
that it was real. You know, eventually I had other
individuals as well. It'd go imitation to love. Like so
many peoples in life, I have heard of love. However,
(03:51):
she has never invited me into her presence. I was
heartbroken because from what I am always heard, love was free.
Money could not buy her. So I got down on
my knees and in a sincere cry, called out to
love demand an answer of her absence in my life.
(04:16):
Within moments, a feeling so wonderful came upon me, A
present so bright appeared. A sweet voice said, I am
the foundation upon which the creative stands. It replied, how
can I serve you? I said, save me. I am
(04:38):
lost in this cruel world peace and on my life.
With you in my life, I could conquer my fears
and overcome all my adversities. With you in my life,
I could be healed of all the pain and suffering
(04:58):
I have faced it. With you, I can become positive
and productive. I can grow and become the person God
intended me to become. Love responded, your request has been granted.
As time passed, I lived, I forgot my request within
a moment, Lois you appeared. Love appeared through you. That's
(05:26):
invitation to love right there.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
As Mitch reflected on his own life, he discovered many
instances where God had tried to reach out to him,
but he just wasn't ready.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
As I looked back all my life since I met God,
I can go back further. Before I was arrested, I
was coming from my grandmother's house, and some old ladies
on the opposite side of the street that knew me,
you know, And they had responded, they said, Uh, boy,
(06:03):
are you gonna stay out of prison this time? You know?
I just said yes, ma'am. And so their house was
about on the same side of the street that they
lived on, right across the street from the abandoned church.
And as I'm woking, I heard something say, uh, step inside.
(06:24):
So so anyway, I stepped inside this abandoned church. And
when I it's had a little like at the bottom.
It still had a little rail where you know, I
guess the door was where you had to step over there.
And I stepped over there and stepped inside. And as
soon as I stepped inside the door, all the way
(06:45):
in the back of the church to my left. It
was in December, and the song was coming directly down
through that window, shining straight down to that door. And uh,
as soon as I stepped inside the door, something came home.
I had no I knew what it was, so I said, beamless,
this the only thing I knew. So I still welcome
(07:08):
out to church and leaning abroad and forgot about it.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And you've been listening to one heck of his story.
You've been listening to the poetry of this man, and
the theology and so much more. When we come back
more of episode six Sunday Mornings with Big Mitch here
on our American Stories, Lee jabib here, and I'm inviting
(07:31):
you to help our American Stories celebrate this country's two
hundred and fiftieth birthday coming soon. If you want to
help inspire countless others to love America like we do,
and want to help us bring the inspiring and important
stories told here about a good and beautiful country, please
consider making a text deductible donation to our American Stories.
Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and click the donate button.
(07:55):
Any amount helps go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and
give m and we continue with our American Stories and
(08:16):
with Sunday Mornings with Big Mitch. Episode six, in a
new prison environment, Mitch finds a young man huddled under
a table reading were turned out to be the Bible.
A familiar force led Mitch to join him against his
better judgment. Here's Big Mitch.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I got him on the table and talk to him,
and he cancil asking him how did he know God
was real? He told him to said his mama said,
if you want no gods really as God to touch it.
So I got down on my knees and you don't
want nobody to see me break because that was a
sign of weakness at that time, and that's that's the
(08:55):
way I feel so I waited there if I want
to sleep, and I pray and asked God to touch me,
where spirit came over and it began to change his life.
So I went on to their throw and filled praying.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
And that's when I realized that same spirit that I
felt when I went in that church for the same
spirit that came over me that time when I prayed
in the county jail and the time after that.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
So God had reached out to me way even over.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
There, but I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
And then as I continue to pray and get to
know God, then, as you know, then I understood that
what God got for you you came missed.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
And God just continued to enter and to save Mitch's
life in more ways than one, leaving him to wonder,
why me, Lord, Why me?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
See I'd have been on the deil bed and more
than one time, more than three times I had off
interview paralyzed from neck down. But C two, C three,
C four, C five, and C six of my server
vertebrate was on the verge of crashing. I didn't even
know it. He saved me from that, and I was
(10:17):
diagnosed with the tumor and my digestic tract here they
told me it was cancer and society. When I went
out there, they told me it was free canclor and
so they told me said, don't worry about it is
it hadn't spread. So it didn't spread, so thank God
for that. But I didn't been through a lot of stuff.
Just almost died last year my hall. I read there
(10:42):
below twenty one percent. And then I laid in here
for four to five months like that, And they said
that they didn't know why I didn't have a heart attack.
Use my heart used to knock me out at night,
just beating so fast.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
It just knocked me out.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
But the power of God and has continued to rescue
me and continue to save me. God just gave me favor.
And I'm a good person. I got a good spirit
about man. I got a good personality. I'm just a
likabul guy. And like I said, that stopped a lot
of foolness from happening. One time, a guy waiting to
(11:22):
staff the guy up, but he wouldn't do it because
I'm standing there. He didn't wane that. He told me
later on he said, well, miss, I ain't want to
make no mistake and hits you. God killed me there,
you know, because if I was moved, boo boo boo
would have stamped him up, because that's what he did.
That's that's kind of the type of stuff he did.
He did stuff like that. He would stamped you up
(11:45):
for things that me and you considered to be foolish.
But he'll do it. But anyway, he's just other of
those things that if God then used me in so
many different ways, and I thank God, but I took
it like, but God didn't allow me to save so
many others.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Life with his newfound purpose in life revealed to him
by God. It shares another poem he wrote.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I wrote a poem called the Book of Life. And
one of the reasons that I wrote it is because
of the way I had lived my life, the way
I had walked through the early part of my life blind, confused, lost,
I was ignorant, and I was foolish. And so I said, well, man,
(12:33):
I need to write something that I can give away
to somebody and they can read it and maybe it'll
help them not make the same mistakes that I made.
And I called it to the Book of Life. But
I knew it couldn't be no whole book, so I
had to really really write it in a mound where
(12:53):
it can be show but it would be powerful. But
it can also be like the Book of Life, you know.
And so that's why I wrote it. And here it go,
the Book of Life, coming toth from that shadow of nothingness,
seeking my purpose for my existence. While on my quest,
(13:17):
I found myself on a path without meaning and in direction,
without knowledge of the present fear of hopelessness. However, life
placed it me here. While growing in darkness.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Eating from the fruits of the trees in the midst
of my garden, I truly understanding which trees to eat
from and my growth and development, I became parsing from
the fruits I ate to tell them, also parsing everything
I touched.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
The parson consumed in my life and every life and
my mist. I became nomadic, lost and confused. As I
traveled in the willingness state of my parsingness state without
understanding and knowledge of who I am and my purpose
for existing. At that point of self destruction, I heard
(14:13):
a peaceful, loving voice speaking to me and the nothingness
of my existence, saying, eat from the fruits from the
trees in the midst of my God, you will be
healed and save I accident. What and who are you?
The God said, I am the spirit of everlasting I
(14:36):
am loved, peach, hope, your mercy, understanding, knowledge, reasons. I
am the voice of timeless meaning and wonders. As I
eat of these fruits of these trees, a dull fail
hail from my eyes. I thought, for the first time,
I began to understand myself. I began to grow in
(14:58):
knowledge of life and the meaning of it. I knew
my purpose, my reason for existing. I am a messenger
of the everlassing Spirit. The voice of Time is meanings
and wonders. All the eels of life cannot defeat you.
Not hopelessness nor despair owning you can defeats you. It's
(15:22):
from the fruits of these trees and experience and relationship
with the vase of time. Listen, meanings and wonderess, and
see for the first time a messenger. So yes, that's
a book of life.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
As a disciple of God, Mitch knows all too well
how to guide his fellow inmates back to the right
path through knowledge, through experience, and when it comes to
motivating troubled youth, he does things his own way.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I used to speak to youth proofs coming through home
and for oh probably pass seven eight years. And I
told the warden at that time, and I told all
of them, I said, I'm not gonna get into this
fuel factored thing because of a skin straight thing. It
just fear, because that's I want to momentary. You know,
fear only lands as long as you need. And you
(16:16):
see what I'm saying. But I said, I want to
give them some got to be with them when they're
out there involved in things, and they can recall the
knowledge and the information that they didn't receive. So yeah,
every time I talk to them, I wasn't trying to
scare them for real, I'm trying to give them some information.
I told him, I'm trying to wake you up. I'm
(16:37):
trying to let you be able to see.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Gregan Hangler and Reagan Habib. And you've
been listening to episode six of Sunday Mornings with Big Mitch,
and now I think you're coming to understand why this
was such an important friendship I had to bring to
(17:00):
bear to get you to know the man I'd come
to know in love. By this point in time in
our conversations, I had considered Mitch one of my best friends.
Sunday Mornings with Big Mitch Episode six here on our
American Stories.
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories.
This next story is about a friend of mine. We're
close in age, but have little else in common. Mitchell
Rutledge aka Big Mitch, was born black and poor in Georgia.
I was born kind of brown and middle class in
New Jersey. He never met his father. I still talk
(00:33):
to my ninety four year old father every week. He
dropped out of high school in his early teens and
was illiterate into his early twenties. I was surrounded by
books growing up and finished graduate school in my early thirties.
Big Mitch spent the last forty four years of his
life in Alabama prisons for killing a man. But this
(00:55):
is not a story about an innocent man sentenced to
prison for a crime he didn't commit. Big Mitch never
denied the crime or made excuses for it. This is
the story of my friend's spiritual transformation while serving his
life sentence. It's also about a friendship. Only God could
(01:15):
have engineered a friendship that began with a single Sunday
morning call. Through these weekly conversations, I hope you come
to know and love him as much as I do.
Here's episode six. My conversation. On February eighteenth, twenty twenty four,
will Mitch kick things off reading one of his original poems,
(01:37):
Invitation to Love.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
This is a free call from an incarcerated individual at
Alabama Department of Corrections. To accept this pree call press
one to refuse this pre call press too. Thank you
for ucing securis. You may start the conversation now.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Coming up as a youth, I never really understood love
because when I was coming up, I don't think I
was told I was loved well one time, but I
knew my mother loved even though she never said it.
But it was just something there that the way, the
thing she did and what she did show me she loved.
(02:22):
I knew that type of love right there, but just
never just really understood love. So, traveling through life, I
always thought when people said that they loved you that
it was a joke because I never really heard it.
I think I heard it one time from my great
great aunt and she would always say, well, I loved
(02:43):
you a little rout because she said I look like
my grandfather. But I never saw it when I was
out there in society, never saw it in the streets,
and and it it just was a word that I
just didn't believe it. I I thought, I thought it
was a joke. So when I meant sister Willian and
she told me that she loves me, well I didn't
(03:09):
understand it for real. Well she meant it because I
heard it so many times, so I really didn't believe it.
But as time went on, I realized that she really
did loved me. And so what I did as time
went on, I written a poem type of invitation to love.
(03:30):
And I written it because of her and the love
that she introduced me to her and let me know
that it was real. You know, eventually I had other
individuals as well. It'd go imitation to love. Like so
many peoples in life, I have heard of love. However,
(03:51):
she has never invited me into her presence. I was
heartbroken because from what I am always heard, love was free.
Money could not buy her. So I got down on
my knees and in a sincere cry, called out to
love demand an answer of her absence in my life.
(04:16):
Within moments, a feeling so wonderful came upon me, A
present so bright appeared. A sweet voice said, I am
the foundation upon which the creative stands. It replied, how
can I serve you? I said, save me. I am
(04:38):
lost in this cruel world peace and on my life.
With you in my life, I could conquer my fears
and overcome all my adversities. With you in my life,
I could be healed of all the pain and suffering
(04:58):
I have faced it. With you, I can become positive
and productive. I can grow and become the person God
intended me to become. Love responded, your request has been granted.
As time passed, I lived, I forgot my request within
a moment, Lois you appeared. Love appeared through you. That's
(05:26):
invitation to love right there.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
As Mitch reflected on his own life, he discovered many
instances where God had tried to reach out to him,
but he just wasn't ready.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
As I looked back all my life since I met God,
I can go back further. Before I was arrested, I
was coming from my grandmother's house, and some old ladies
on the opposite side of the street that knew me,
you know, And they had responded, they said, Uh, boy,
(06:03):
are you gonna stay out of prison this time? You know?
I just said yes, ma'am. And so their house was
about on the same side of the street that they
lived on, right across the street from the abandoned church.
And as I'm woking, I heard something say, uh, step inside.
(06:24):
So so anyway, I stepped inside this abandoned church. And
when I it's had a little like at the bottom.
It still had a little rail where you know, I
guess the door was where you had to step over there.
And I stepped over there and stepped inside. And as
soon as I stepped inside the door, all the way
(06:45):
in the back of the church to my left. It
was in December, and the song was coming directly down
through that window, shining straight down to that door. And uh,
as soon as I stepped inside the door, something came home.
I had no I knew what it was, so I said, beamless,
this the only thing I knew. So I still welcome
(07:08):
out to church and leaning abroad and forgot about it.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And you've been listening to one heck of his story.
You've been listening to the poetry of this man, and
the theology and so much more. When we come back
more of episode six Sunday Mornings with Big Mitch here
on our American Stories, Lee jabib here, and I'm inviting
(07:31):
you to help our American Stories celebrate this country's two
hundred and fiftieth birthday coming soon. If you want to
help inspire countless others to love America like we do,
and want to help us bring the inspiring and important
stories told here about a good and beautiful country, please
consider making a text deductible donation to our American Stories.
Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and click the donate button.
(07:55):
Any amount helps go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and
give m and we continue with our American Stories and
(08:16):
with Sunday Mornings with Big Mitch. Episode six, in a
new prison environment, Mitch finds a young man huddled under
a table reading were turned out to be the Bible.
A familiar force led Mitch to join him against his
better judgment. Here's Big Mitch.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I got him on the table and talk to him,
and he cancil asking him how did he know God
was real? He told him to said his mama said,
if you want no gods really as God to touch it.
So I got down on my knees and you don't
want nobody to see me break because that was a
sign of weakness at that time, and that's that's the
(08:55):
way I feel so I waited there if I want
to sleep, and I pray and asked God to touch me,
where spirit came over and it began to change his life.
So I went on to their throw and filled praying.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
And that's when I realized that same spirit that I
felt when I went in that church for the same
spirit that came over me that time when I prayed
in the county jail and the time after that.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
So God had reached out to me way even over.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
There, but I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
And then as I continue to pray and get to
know God, then, as you know, then I understood that
what God got for you you came missed.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
And God just continued to enter and to save Mitch's
life in more ways than one, leaving him to wonder,
why me, Lord, Why me?
Speaker 3 (09:54):
See I'd have been on the deil bed and more
than one time, more than three times I had off
interview paralyzed from neck down. But C two, C three,
C four, C five, and C six of my server
vertebrate was on the verge of crashing. I didn't even
know it. He saved me from that, and I was
(10:17):
diagnosed with the tumor and my digestic tract here they
told me it was cancer and society. When I went
out there, they told me it was free canclor and
so they told me said, don't worry about it is
it hadn't spread. So it didn't spread, so thank God
for that. But I didn't been through a lot of stuff.
Just almost died last year my hall. I read there
(10:42):
below twenty one percent. And then I laid in here
for four to five months like that, And they said
that they didn't know why I didn't have a heart attack.
Use my heart used to knock me out at night,
just beating so fast.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
It just knocked me out.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
But the power of God and has continued to rescue
me and continue to save me. God just gave me favor.
And I'm a good person. I got a good spirit
about man. I got a good personality. I'm just a
likabul guy. And like I said, that stopped a lot
of foolness from happening. One time, a guy waiting to
(11:22):
staff the guy up, but he wouldn't do it because
I'm standing there. He didn't wane that. He told me
later on he said, well, miss, I ain't want to
make no mistake and hits you. God killed me there,
you know, because if I was moved, boo boo boo
would have stamped him up, because that's what he did.
That's that's kind of the type of stuff he did.
He did stuff like that. He would stamped you up
(11:45):
for things that me and you considered to be foolish.
But he'll do it. But anyway, he's just other of
those things that if God then used me in so
many different ways, and I thank God, but I took
it like, but God didn't allow me to save so
many others.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Life with his newfound purpose in life revealed to him
by God. It shares another poem he wrote.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I wrote a poem called the Book of Life. And
one of the reasons that I wrote it is because
of the way I had lived my life, the way
I had walked through the early part of my life blind, confused, lost,
I was ignorant, and I was foolish. And so I said, well, man,
(12:33):
I need to write something that I can give away
to somebody and they can read it and maybe it'll
help them not make the same mistakes that I made.
And I called it to the Book of Life. But
I knew it couldn't be no whole book, so I
had to really really write it in a mound where
(12:53):
it can be show but it would be powerful. But
it can also be like the Book of Life, you know.
And so that's why I wrote it. And here it go,
the Book of Life, coming toth from that shadow of nothingness,
seeking my purpose for my existence. While on my quest,
(13:17):
I found myself on a path without meaning and in direction,
without knowledge of the present fear of hopelessness. However, life
placed it me here. While growing in darkness.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Eating from the fruits of the trees in the midst
of my garden, I truly understanding which trees to eat
from and my growth and development, I became parsing from
the fruits I ate to tell them, also parsing everything
I touched.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
The parson consumed in my life and every life and
my mist. I became nomadic, lost and confused. As I
traveled in the willingness state of my parsingness state without
understanding and knowledge of who I am and my purpose
for existing. At that point of self destruction, I heard
(14:13):
a peaceful, loving voice speaking to me and the nothingness
of my existence, saying, eat from the fruits from the
trees in the midst of my God, you will be
healed and save I accident. What and who are you?
The God said, I am the spirit of everlasting I
(14:36):
am loved, peach, hope, your mercy, understanding, knowledge, reasons. I
am the voice of timeless meaning and wonders. As I
eat of these fruits of these trees, a dull fail
hail from my eyes. I thought, for the first time,
I began to understand myself. I began to grow in
(14:58):
knowledge of life and the meaning of it. I knew
my purpose, my reason for existing. I am a messenger
of the everlassing Spirit. The voice of Time is meanings
and wonders. All the eels of life cannot defeat you.
Not hopelessness nor despair owning you can defeats you. It's
(15:22):
from the fruits of these trees and experience and relationship
with the vase of time. Listen, meanings and wonderess, and
see for the first time a messenger. So yes, that's
a book of life.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
As a disciple of God, Mitch knows all too well
how to guide his fellow inmates back to the right
path through knowledge, through experience, and when it comes to
motivating troubled youth, he does things his own way.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I used to speak to youth proofs coming through home
and for oh probably pass seven eight years. And I
told the warden at that time, and I told all
of them, I said, I'm not gonna get into this
fuel factored thing because of a skin straight thing. It
just fear, because that's I want to momentary. You know,
fear only lands as long as you need. And you
(16:16):
see what I'm saying. But I said, I want to
give them some got to be with them when they're
out there involved in things, and they can recall the
knowledge and the information that they didn't receive. So yeah,
every time I talk to them, I wasn't trying to
scare them for real, I'm trying to give them some information.
I told him, I'm trying to wake you up. I'm
(16:37):
trying to let you be able to see.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Gregan Hangler and Reagan Habib. And you've
been listening to episode six of Sunday Mornings with Big Mitch,
and now I think you're coming to understand why this
was such an important friendship I had to bring to
(17:00):
bear to get you to know the man I'd come
to know in love. By this point in time in
our conversations, I had considered Mitch one of my best friends.
Sunday Mornings with Big Mitch Episode six here on our
American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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