Erin Moriarty on what we owe the wrongfully convicted
"48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty talked with author John Grisham about the trials endured by America's all-too-many falsely-accused, even after they're freed. She has more thoughts about that in our commentary:
You've watched scenes play out like this over and over again: a wrongfully convicted person, tearfully embraced by family members, walking free after spending years behind bars.
It's a heartwarming sight, evidence that, maybe, justice denied is only justice delayed, and that the system does finally work.
But what happens to those people after they go home?
For more than twenty-five years, I have reported on wrongful convictions, and I have followed the efforts of those newly-freed to return to the lives they left behind. And it's a real struggle.
In 2021, Kevin Strickland was exonerated and released after 43 years in Missouri prisons. When I asked him how he felt about getting his life back, Strickland, who was a teenager when arrested, said, "I get my life back? I never had one."
He was starting over in his sixties.
Earlier on this broadcast, you heard Kenny Gardiner, Mark Jones and Dominic Lucci describe lives drastically altered by 26 years in prison.
They missed out on school, marriage, having children, and all the joys that come with family. They missed saying goodbye to parents who died and going to their funerals. And when they were released, they walked out with only the clothes on their backs and a few personal items.
Here's the kicker: When people who committed crimes are paroled, they are given assistance to find housing and employment, and counseling. What do the wrongfully convicted get?
No services at all.
Thirty-eight states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government do have programs that offer some compensation. But in most cases, those newly-released only qualify if they are actually exonerated – given a pardon, or a finding of actual innocence – and even then, the process can take years.
There is nothing to make these individuals whole again. But maybe restoring the Social Security benefits that they lost can give them some financial security as they age.
And there is something else that should be guaranteed: A heartfelt apology.
Story produced by Liza Monasebian. Editor: Carol Ross.
See also:
- Why are wrongly-convicted people still imprisoned in Missouri? ("Sunday Morning")
- Righting wrongs: How Joyce Watkins was exonerated in court ("Sunday Morning")
- A pen pal's unswerving faith ("Sunday Morning")
- The Central Park Five speak ("Sunday Morning")
- An exonerated artist ("Sunday Morning")