In a CBS This Morning special in May 2018, they’ve met up with David Robinson during his release after spending nearly two decades in prison. “As Martin Luther King had say, free at last, thank God all mighty I’m free at last, I’m free,” Robinson shouted in his emotional reunion with his family that is genuinely tear-jerking.
Robinson was convicted for the murder of Sheila Box back in 2000 and sentenced to life without parole. After reviewing evidence and a hardworking team of attorneys, a judge ruled out in the Missouri Supreme Court cleared him of all charges in February 2018.
There are dozens of cases and stories like Robinson’s of innocent people wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit even when evidence proves them otherwise. Upon my research, they have all come to the same pattern of either having a lack of evidence, unfair trials, or mistreatment of evidence. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, as of November 2016, exonerees spent nearly 16,936 years in prison–on average, nine years each.
Almost all 80% were imprisoned for more than one year; 37% for ten years or more; 57% for at least five years. African Americans ranked higher, with an average of 47%.
Some even get convicted at a young age. Just like 23-year-old Davonte Sanford was charged for the murder of four people at the age of 14. After evidence that he was wrongfully charged and the real killer confessing of the crimes, he was finally released.
In a 2017 TED Talk, Harvard Law professor Ronald Sullivan had saved 6,000 innocent people over the course of his career. He similar cases of how people end up in prison wrongfully convicted of a crime only to end up freed years or centuries later or end up dead in their cell.
One story he shared the story of Jonathan Fleming, who was accused and convicted for the murder of a drug dealer that happened in New York back in 1986. Fleming was nowhere near the scene of the crime. During the time of the murder, he was with his family in Florida on a trip to Disney World. In his back pocket, there was a receipt that helped prove his innocence.
The problem was that the police never gave it to his public defender, and no one found it until 20 years later when Sullivan re-looked at his case. That single piece of evidence for years left hidden and leaving serving decades in prison an innocent person convicted of nothing. If that evidence were sooner, he would have been free years ago. Instead, Fleming had nearly spent a total of 24 years in prison.
What can we do about this on-going problem? Educating ourselves more and take action by visiting the Innocence Project website.
Founded by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at Cardozo School of Law, the Innocence Project helps the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. Their mission is to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment as stated in there about page.
On their website they share many cases about the people wrongfully incarcerated ranging from a year to 28 years. This should be put in the public viewing more often. Too many people are probably still in jail, crying out their innocence, waiting for someone to hear them. Some I have listed down below the names, false crimes, sentencing, and years served during their convictions.
In 2018, 151 people were freed from serving sentences for crimes they did not commit, and on average, wrongly convicted prisoners have served lost more than 1,600 years of life behind bars according to a 2019 article by reasons.com. When does this end? How many people still incarcerated over wrong convictions? Those questions remain unknown, but more people are aware and are ready to fix this problem of injustice.
Crime is everywhere, and I’m here to research it all. Visit my Twitter @TheDRCblog for more updates on new blog post.
Down Right Criminal 