It’s #WrongfulConvictionDay, and I want to introduce you to some exonerees! Please RETWEET this thread to help raise awareness about the problem of wrongful convictions and to celebrate those who’ve survived the fire.
There are far too many wrongful convictions with a number in their title. Here’s me and @mandunderbridge with Korey Wise of the Central Park 5. Korey was 16 when he was arrested and served nearly 14 years before he was exonerated.
Here’s Anna Vasquez of the San Antonio 4, a group of gay hispanic women falsely accused of child molestation during the satanic panic. Anna served 15 years before she was exonerated in 2016.
Here’s Damien Echols of the #WM3. Damien was 18 when he was arrested, also in connection with a satanic panic case. He served 18 years before he was released on an Alford plea. He & his codefendants, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley are still fighting for full exoneration
Obie Anthony is my exoneree twin! We were both released from prison on the exact same day: Oct 4th, 2011. I interviewed Obie for Labyrinths. He now helps exonerees after they’re released with his foundation @exoneratenationpodcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exo…
It is surprisingly common for exonerees to devote themselves to helping others. During the pandemic, I interviewed dozens for @crimestorymedia. Khalil Rushdan spent 15 years inside for a wrongful murder conviction. He now works with the ACLU in Arizona. crimestory.com/2020/04/13/ama…
Marty Tankleff @exoner8ed spent 17 years locked up for the murder of his own parents before he was exonerated. He too became a lawyer. Like me, he’s on the board of the @Douglassproject helping to humanize the incarcerated. crimestory.com/2020/05/10/ama…
Noura Jackson was 18 when she was wrongly convicted of stabbing her mother to death. She served 11 years before she was freed. crimestory.com/2020/06/03/ama…
Heidi Goodwin was wrongfully convicted due to the now discredited shaken baby syndrome. She served 10 years before she was exonerated. crimestory.com/2020/04/30/ama…
Jens Soering was a 18-year-old German foreign exchange student in Virginia when he was wrongfully convicted of a double homicide. His case has many echoes of my own, but it took 34 years for him to be released. I covered his story here: art19.com/shows/the-trut…
And there are so, so so many more. Felipe Rodriguez, 27 years.
Irishman @MisePeterP was on death row for 15 years. After his exoneration, he met his wife Sunny Jacobs, 17 years on death row. Together they founded the @SunnyCenterFDN.
Ryan Ferguson, 10 years, and Darryl Burton, 23 years
I remain wrongly convicted of slander in Italy, and loads of people still think I'm a killer despite my acquittal. I am at peace with this. I will also never stop fighting to clear my name.
This is a paradox. Embracing this paradox is a key that can free you from suffering.
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You must accept that the world is on fire and simultaneously try to douse the flames. You must accept that your life is perfect, with all its flaws and annoyances and griefs and burdens, and still strive to improve yourself and your circumstances.
Zen Master Suzuki Roshi put it this way: "Everything is perfect…and there’s plenty of room for improvement!" What does this mean? How could everything be "perfect" when there are wars and famines and rapes and murders, and myriad injustices that no one deserves?
Before Italy, I was only vaguely aware of that ancient stereotype that all women secretly hate one another, that we are incapable of true friendship. Some call it “venimism”; others refer to “mean girls”.
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In 1893, Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso wrote: “Due to women’s latent antipathy for one another, trivial events give rise to fierce hatreds...these occasions lead quickly to insolence and assaults.” The source of our antipathy? Sexual jealousy, of course.
We hate one another because we are ever competing for male attention. I always thought this misogynistic myth was obviously false. I had lots of girlfriends, from school and soccer; so did my sisters, my mom. But, then again, I also thought my innocence was obvious…
I've been on trial half my life. Yesterday, my 18-year legal drama finally came to an end when the Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court, definitively convicted me of criminal slander.
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Many people are familiar with my wrongful conviction for Meredith Kercher’s murder, but this lesser charge, arising from statements I signed during my interrogation, is the one that has continued to haunt me.
The charge resulted from a lie invented by the police: that I was present when my roommate Meredith was sexually assaulted and murdered at our apartment in Perugia in 2007.
I’m currently still on trial in Italy and I have a verdict coming in 4 days. The waiting is the hardest part. So I turn to my comforts, like Star Trek. You probably know that it’s always been a progressive show, but it’s also featured many wrongful convictions!
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It’s not surprising that Star Trek would feature such stories. The original series broke ground in casting @NichelleIsUhura as Uhura and
@GeorgeTakei as Sulu. It was rare at the time for a Black woman and Asian man to be cast in positions of authority.
And of course, The Next Generation prominently featured a talented character with a disability,
@levarburton's Geordi La Forge. But what’s warmed my heart the most is that the Star Trek writers are so fond of wrongful conviction stories. Here’s a sampling!
Rarely do I meet people whose compassion floors me. That’s the case with @ScarlettMLewis . She lost her son Jesse in the Sandy Hook tragedy, and it would have been easy for her to become angry and vengeful. But she took a different path. /
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In her first interview in the wake of her son’s murder, she said “I take my part of the responsibility for what happened to Jesse in his school.” Her sister told her, don’t you ever say that. It’s not your fault. And Scarlett said, “If I don’t, who will?”
She forgave the shooter, Adam Lanza, knowing that someone that could do something so heinous must have been in a tremendous amount of pain.
I’m writing this from the Panama Hotel and Cafe, which sheltered the valuables of Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during WWII, and which sheltered me during one of my darkest periods. This is a letter of gratitude to the Japanese.
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Most people see my name and think of Italy, but the first foreign culture that captured my heart was Japan. Manga and anime and sushi led me to study Japanese in high school, and I would often stop through Japantown on my way home from school.
I spent countless hours in Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore. And my first study abroad experience was actually in Kyoto and Nara, at age 14. I carried Japanese culture with me, even as I later went to study in Italy.