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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Burden of Innocence

Clyde Charles spent 17 years in Louisiana's state penitentiary at Angola before DNA testing finally cleared him of the rape for which he had received a life sentence.

Frederick Daye, Neil Miller, and Anthony Robinson each spent 10 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit before they were finally exonerated.

And Ron Williamson spent 11 years on Oklahoma's Death Row for a rape and murder he didn't commit. At one point, he was just five days away from being executed.

When these men walked out of prison, they were greeted by media cameras (including FRONTLINE's, in the case of Clyde Charles), jubilant family members, and triumphant attorneys. Hopes were high. Yet when FRONTLINE found Charles three years later, he was jobless and homeless, living in his car. And he is not alone. Charles is one of hundreds of wrongfully convicted prisoners -- the most celebrated being the approximately 130 cleared by DNA evidence -- who have found that re-entry into society is much more difficult than they ever expected.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/burden

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