HARD

I can't go back and tell the young man I was many years ago how things really are. I want to tell him just how vulnerable any one of us can be to suffering false Imprisonment and even execution. I can't do that. It's way too late for roe. However, I would like to try and impart this hard-learned knowledge on the young men and women out there now.

I grew up pledging allegiance to the flag, "with liberty and justice for all," and I believed it wholeheartedly. I was in for a rude shock at the age of 24. I was falsely convicted of sexual assault and given a life sentence.

After a very long, very difficult struggle for justice, overwhelming new evidence of my innocence has finally come out. All three main state witnesses have now admitted that I am innocent including the alleged victim. They had been coerced by investigators and prosecutors into falsely implicating me.

I would like every young man and woman out there to know that you could be in danger of suffering the same nightmarish fate. Don't naively assume that as long as you have not committed a crime, you cannot be charged and convicted.

The main point I would like to make is that if you get into any kind of trouble at all, whether it be using drugs, shoplifting, vandalism, burglary, or any other offense, you will forever be suspected of committing other crimes including much more serious ones. You will often be investigated when crimes are committed in your area, or whenever there are descriptions of suspects that even remotely resemble you. Your picture will often be shown to alleged victims and witnesses, if you have committed certain kinds of crimes. You will forever be in danger of being accused and convicted of something you didn't do.

Even if you never commit a crime, you are putting your freedom at great risk if you hang around the wrong crowd. If one or more of them commit a crime, you could easily be falsely implicated. It happens all the time. Just ask Randall Dale Adams, who was almost executed before the truth of his innocence was finally uncovered. His case was the subject of the award-winning film "The Thin Blue Line," by Errol Morris.

As we have all seen in the last decade or so, hundreds of innocent people have been exonerated and freed, largely due to the scientific advancement of DMA testing. This has made us all more aware that false convictions can and do occur, and with sickening regularity. We continue to see a stream of former prisoners walking out the prison gates and into the open arms of their joyous families. Some who have been freed were as close as a few minutes from being executed.

What you may not know is that the ones who have been freed represent only a fraction of all of those who have been falsely convicted. Statistics prove that literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, remain illegally incarcerated in the U.S.A. Most never receive the help they need to prove their innocence. There is very convincing evidence that dozens have been executed before they could prove their innocence.

Some had clean records before they were falsely convicted. However, in most cases, they had one or more prior arrests or convictions on their records, and were therefore automatically suspect. Usually, the priors were minor, but it was enough to make it easy for a more serious false charge to be pinned on them.

Your freedom is much more priceless than anything that has been depicted, in a credit card commercial. Think about everything you have endless access to right now — family, friends, church, career, home, the outdoors, travel, good food, nice clothes, cars, computers, music, movies, recreation, shopping, etc. Now picture yourself losing all of that in a harrowing instant. You don't have to commit a crime to be convicted of one. That is the harsh truth. If you value your freedom, you must not only stay out of trouble, but also stay completely away from trouble.

July -> Mid Sept

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