According to the National Registry of Exonerations at the
University of Michigan, 1,569 men and women in the United States, most
of them African American, have been completely exonerated after being
wrongfully convicted and sent to prison. The number of people exonerated
for wrongful convictions actually broke a record high in 2014 with 125
exonerations, including six people who were actually on death row
awaiting execution.Less than every three days in our country, some man or woman is
released back into society after spending a tragic portion of their life
behind bars for a crime they never committed. Few injustices can
compare to the horror of spending one hour in prison for something you
didn't do.
Ricky Jackson of Ohio spent 341,640 hours, or 39
years, behind bars before he was exonerated. Just a teenager when he was
convicted, he was nearly a senior citizen when he was released.
Jonathan Fleming was serving the 25th year of a 25-year sentence when he was finally exonerated after a wrongful conviction.
Glenn
Ford, on death row for 30 years in Louisiana, was 64 years old when he
was released and was exonerated. Stricken with lung cancer, he was only
expected to live a few more months.
One study determined that
nearly 10,000 people are likely to be wrongfully convicted for serious
crimes annually. Another study estimates that as many as 340 people are
likely to have been executed in the United States before they were
properly exonerated.
This is a travesty. Anyone who says otherwise is sick.
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