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

Chapter 1. Living the Aftermath of a Wrongful Conviction

Chapter 1 Living the Aftermath of a Wrongful Conviction These data often are used to characterize “the innocent ” in the United States, people who have been wrongly convicted of crimes and released from prison because of ample evidence of their factual innocence (as of September 2011). 138—the number of people exonerated of capital crimes and released from death row since 1973; 9.8—the average number of years they spent in prison awaiting exoneration (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org) 273—the number of DNA-based exonerations; 13—the average number of years they spent in prison awaiting exoneration (www.innocenceproject.org) 340—the number of wrongful (mostly rape and murder) convictions uncovered between 1989 and 2003 (Gross et al. 2005) 27—the number of states that provide monetary compensation to the wrongly convicted; 10—the number of states that provide services such as help with housing, employment, and education; 0—the number of states that provide postrelease assistance to exonerees in accord with the model proposed by the Innocence Project (www.innocenceproject.org) 10—the number of nonprofit organizations that provide social services to exonerees 43—the number of states served by an innocence project; 11— the number of states with an Innocence or Criminal Justice Reform Commission (www.innocenceproject.org) 3 0.027 percent–5 percent—estimates of the percentages of cases (of various types) resulting in a wrongful conviction (0.027 percent in Kansas v. Marsh 2006; 0.5 percent in Huff et al. 1996 and Zalman et al. 2008; 1.4 percent in Poveda 2001; 2.3 percent in Gross and O’Brien 2008; 3.3 percent– 5 percent in Risinger 2007). These numbers represent substantial change in identifying and assisting those wrongly convicted of crimes in the United States in just ten years. Nevertheless, the numbers mask the flesh-and-blood reality for the wrongly convicted. While they outline the contours of “innocence” in the United States, they obscure nuances and human experiences. Capturing the human dimensions of “innocence” is the primary focus of this book. To do so requires getting behind and underneath the numbers to the people whose lives they represent, whose lives have been disrupted, uprooted, and turned upside down by their convictions and incarceration for crimes they did not commit. The numbers alone cannot convey the losses they have suffered, the opportunities they have lost, or the emotional turmoil they confront, all as a result of their wrongful convictions. The numbers obscure . . . The overwhelming grief felt by Kirk Bloodsworth at the death of his mother, his staunchest supporter, just five months before his exoneration and release after almost ten years of wrongful incarceration; The unspeakable pain confronted by Perry Cobb when he learned of the rape of his young daughter while he was wrongfully incarcerated and, thus, unavailable to protect her; The disorienting trauma persistently endured by Gary Gauger over the discovery of his murdered parents and his subsequent interrogation and arrest for their brutal deaths; The utter helplessness felt by Sabrina Butler on the day she thought she was to be taken to her execution for her wrongful conviction for killing her infant son; The irreplaceable years of fatherhood snatched from Greg Wilhoit whose small children were raised in a foster home S e t t i n g t h e S t a g e 4 while he wasted away on death row for killing their mother, his wife; The bitterness and anger experienced by Shabaka Brown over the death of his brother when he was denied the right to give him a life-saving kidney donation while on death row. The numbers, while important, are merely placeholders for the people whose voices vividly render what it means to be wrongly convicted and condemned. Many have shared their stories of innocence through biographical and autobiographical books or vignettes of their stories published by others (see Leo 2005). But most of these focus on their lives leading up to their arrests and the legal wrangles resulting in their wrongful convictions , usually including detailed accounts of the legal missteps that landed them in prison for crimes they did not commit (Leo 2005). Thus, these stories demonstrate how the wrongful conviction happened: eyewitness misidentification, police and prosecutorial misconduct, rush to judgment , false confessions, jailhouse snitches, informant mishandling, tunnel vision, and inadequate defense services, to name a few (Huff et al. 1996; Leo 2005; Radelet et al. 1994; Scheck et al. 2000...