Innocence Project: Eleven years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit. KY still won’t compensate me
Spending 11 years behind bars for a crime I didn’t commit was the biggest challenge of my life. I came home one day to a neighbor telling me the police were looking for me, and the next thing I knew I had been convicted of the rape and robbery of a 22-year old woman.
There was no physical evidence connecting me to the crime; I was convicted solely on the basis of mistaken identity. I never stopped trying to prove my innocence, and after 11 long years, I was paroled after new details of my innocence came to light. But it would take another 16 years to be exonerated in a court of law. In the interim, I reunited with my family, found a training program to be a plumber and started to rebuild my life — a tall task given the fact that Kentucky offered no financial support following my release.
Since 1989, 23 innocent Kentuckians have been wrongfully convicted, collectively spending 220 years behind bars for crimes they did not commit. Yet, Kentucky is one of only 10 states that does not compensate wrongfully convicted people who are later proven actually innocent. Senate Bill 131, sponsored by Senators Robin Webb and Steve Rawlings, offers us renewed hope that we may one day get justice.
Read more via the Lexington Herald Leader >> https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article314934291.html#storylink=cpy