AllMovie

Volunteering to teach literature to the inmates of the Dalesboro Correctional Institute, novelist Paul Freeman (Matthew Modine) becomes fascinated with the plight of Charles Henderson (Obba Babatunde), a former Black Panther serving a life sentence for a murder committed 20 years before. Of the four Panthers involved in the killing, Charles is the only one still doing time, a fact that leads Paul to believe that there may be a best-selling book in Henderson's story. As he digs deeper, Paul discovers that Charles was most likely the victim of a complicated governmental cover-up -- not to mention his own sense of honesty and integrity. Even so, all hopes for Charles' redemption (and possible release) rests in the hands of Sharon Davidson (Michelle Greene), the embittered sister of the man killed in that long-ago Black Panther assault. Produced for the USA cable network, Redeemer was first broadcast on March 26, 2002; ironically, the film aired a mere few weeks after real-life '60s black activist H. Rap Brown was sentenced to life imprisonment on a murder charge.