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Exoneration In High School

882 Words4 Pages

This is the end. The rainy spring day starts, and I anxiously am escorted into a room labeled "execution chamber". The men in uniform tie my trembling arms and legs to the slate of metal with the surprisingly comfortable restraints. My family, weeping on the other side of the glass, stares horrifically as the vial of poison is injected into my shaking body.Though my family is sympathetic and weeps for me, they believe that I killed him. I promise I didn't kill him. I drift into an undeserved eternal rest, and the room goes dark. The rain turns to sunshine as the seasons change, and the local news flashes on. The breaking news ticker scrolls across the screen and reads "Newly recovered evidence in the case of John Doe could have saved his life". …show more content…

"This court is in session to discuss the exoneration of the defendant John Doe", announced the same judge, three years later. One hundred sixty-five Americans have been exonerated since 1973. When a person is exonerated, the charges filed against them are dropped on all counts. Exonerations can occur when new evidence is brought forth in a case, when an eyewitness changes their testimony, or when government misconduct occurs during a case. People can be exonerated months or years after they had been wrongfully detained. The justice system, being flawed, cannot assure every criminal on death row is wholly guilty for the crime they are said to have committed. Before a man is considered to be put on death row, forensic, scientific evidence is used to confidently determine the verdict of the accused. The way criminals were handled changed with time, especially in the case of Joseph O'Dell. O'Dell was convicted in Virginia for the rape and murder of Helen Schartner. O'Dell could only be linked to the murder through the blood and semen samples found in O'Dell's car. Joseph O'Dell was executed on February fifth of nineteen eighty- four. When the case was reopened the new DNA evidence showed he could have been cleared of all his charges. This is not the only example of a time when a person was executed solely based on

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