Life after Death Row: Exonerees' Search for Community and Identity

Epilogue

Epilogue Here, we provide brief summaries of the lives our participants have led since their exonerations and our interviews with them.1 We thank Casey Strange for her contributions to early drafts of this section. Gary Beeman Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Gary Beeman was in and out of jail on drug and alcohol-related charges.2 As of 2007, Beeman had been sober and clean for five years and was actively involved in the anti–death penalty movement through organizations such as Witness to Innocence and Journey of Hope. He often speaks about his experiences at colleges and universities and public forums. After becoming clean and sober, he was able to repair his strained relationship with his parents and developed a stable relationship with a woman with whom he fell in love. Sadly, between 2006 and 2009, he suffered three traumatic losses of close family members, including his partner, his brother, and his father. These were difficult times, though he remained sober through the help of several organizations and support systems. Kirk Bloodsworth The murder of Dawn Hamilton was solved in 2003.3 After ten years of urging by Bloodsworth, who wanted desperately to clear his name, the prosecutor submitted the DNA to the national DNA data bank. Kimberly Shay Ruffner was identified and had been incarcerated for a different offense at the same facility as Bloodsworth. They knew each other. Ruffner was a known sex offender who lived near the area where Hamilton had been brutalized. In May 2004, Ruffner was convicted of raping and murdering Dawn Hamilton and sentenced to life in prison. 239 Life after prison was initially difficult for Bloodsworth. He received $300,000 in compensation from the state of Maryland; however, legal fees, repayment of old debts, taxes, and generosity with friends and family quickly ate away at the money. He soon had nothing left, was homeless , was jobless, and survived by trapping animals to sell for food. During this time, Bloodsworth struggled with depression and stigma. In 1998, he attended a conference for exonerees hosted by the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law, where he spoke publicly for the first time about his experience. This was a catalyst for him, and since then he has been a vocal, nationally known anti–death penalty advocate. In 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Innocence Protection Act that provided federal funding for the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Grant Program, to increase access to DNA testing for those incarcerated. He served on Maryland’s Commission on Capital Punishment in 2008 and advocates nationally and internationally for justice reform, innocence issues, and abolition of capital punishment. On a personal note, Bloodsworth and his wife were divorced during his incarceration. He married again after release, though he is recently divorced after eleven years. In the winter of 2011, he moved out of the state of Maryland for the first time since his release. Joseph Green “Shabaka” Brown Since his release over two decades ago, Shabaka Brown has led a quiet life with his wife, whom he married after release.4 He has enjoyed being more involved in the lives of his children and grandchildren. Brown lectures publicly against capital punishment but keeps his family and private life shielded from the public. He has never received a public apology or compensation from the state of Florida. For a while, he worked at a drop-in shelter, feeding and counseling the homeless in Washington, D.C.; however, he and his wife have recently moved, and he is currently looking for employment, which is difficult since his record has not been expunged, and thus his wrongful capital conviction appears whenever a potential employer does a background check. Sabrina Butler Since her exoneration in 1995, Butler has continued to live in her hometown in Mississippi with her husband, Joe, whom she married soon Epilogue 240 after her release.5 In addition to her eldest son, who was taken from her after Walter Dean’s death, she and Joe now have two younger children. Life for Butler has been quite difficult. Many in her small town still believe she is guilty, which has affected her ability to find steady work. She has spent much of her time as a stay-at-home mom relatively isolated from her community. More recently, Butler has been writing a memoir about her experience with the criminal justice system to...