After Innocence

I watched a very moving and thought-provoking documentary the other night entitled After Innocence. The film is about a non-profit legal organization called The Innocence Project which uses DNA evidence to exonerate people who have been wrongly convicted and imprisoned.

The film introduces viewers to several men from various states who were convicted and imprisoned on rape charges. Some of these men were incarcerated for upwards of 20 years before DNA testing proved their innocence. In most cases, they were convicted based upon circumstantial evidence and unreliable eye-witness testimony.

The centerpiece of the film is a man named Wilton Dedge who, at the beginning of the movie, is still in prison. Although DNA testing has proven him innocent three years prior, the state of Florida and the prosecuting attorneys are fighting his release. The film follows the attempts of the Innocence Project to gain his freedom.

Once released, few of these men receive any form of compensation for their wrongful imprisonment. They are turned out onto the street with no money or career skills. The film documents their struggles to rebuild their lives from scratch.

The most disturbing thing about the film is this: The men who are exonerated are those who were "fortunate" enough to be convicted of crimes in which DNA evidence was a factor (namely, rape) and in which samples containing DNA were collected as evidence and preserved for decades. What about all of the innocent people currently languishing in prisons for whom there is no DNA evidence? One gets the impression that what we are seeing in this film is the tip of the iceberg.

This news story appeared on the AP wire this morning:

DNA tests get man freed after 27 years
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 01/03/2008 11:00:22 AM MST

DALLAS—A man imprisoned since 1981 for sexual assault was freed after a judge recommended overturning his conviction.

Charles Chatman, 47, was released on his recognizance after serving nearly 27 years of a 99-year sentence. He was freed on the basis of new DNA testing that lawyers say proves his innocence and adds to Dallas County's nationally unmatched number of wrongfully convicted inmates.

Chatman became the 15th inmate from Dallas County since 2001 to be freed by DNA testing. That is more than any other county nationwide, said Natalie Roetzel of the Innocence Project of Texas, an organization of volunteers who investigate claims of wrongful conviction.

Texas leads the country in prisoners freed by DNA testing. Including Chatman, the state will have released at least 30 wrongfully convicted inmates since 2001, according to the Innocence Project.