What would you do if you were behind bars serving prison time for a crime you did not commit? This has proven to be the case for 20,000 people in America who are falsely convicted. Did you know that there have been 825 known exonerations in the United States since 1989? This means there have been 825 people who were freed from prison because there was a flaw in their sentence or new evidence came up that determined the prisoner’s innocence. The average amount of time from incarceration to exoneration? 13 years.
This was the case for Lewis Fogle, who was charged with the murder of a 15 year-old girl in 1982. Lewis was exonerated 34 years later, after he was proven innocent because of a DNA test. Andre Hatchett is another man who was proven innocent, after spending 25 years in prison for a murder charge. While Andre was in prison, his mother, brother and son had died. These are precious times in a person’s life that they will never get back.
Damien Echols, one of the three boys referred to as the West Memphis Three, was also proven innocent during incarceration. He was charged with the murder of three 8 year-old boys in 1994 with the death sentence. Damien was released after new DNA evidence was brought up, spending a total of 18 years in prison. 10 of those were spent in solitary confinement and the rest was spent on Death Row. An eye opening movie made about the West Memphis Three’s case is "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills" and a stimulating novel is "Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three." There have been many famous actors and musicians who support Damien’s innocence, including Johnny Depp, Natalie Maines, Marilyn Manson, Eddie Vedder, the members of Metallica and many more.
New evidence can occur at any time of a prisoner’s sentence: during incarceration, after death in prison or after being put to death by the death penalty.
Prison is a life changing experience. It can either ruin your entire life or let you see the light at the end of the tunnel. How can these people get their life back? They can’t. And there are both mentally and physically debilitating effects on these people’s lives that they will have to live with forever. There is no way for them to see real life human interaction in prison. They could forget how to act in public, forget how to trust, forget how to be social and forget how to open up to the people closest to them.
About one-third of the people exonerated after proving their innocence have not been compensated for the injustice they suffered and the time they spent incarcerated. We all know that life isn’t fair, and the most we can do is hope that luck is on our side and support those who have been falsely accused.
