The final film is shot, edited, released and it’s a wrap for One For Ten! Can you believe it? We didn’t break down on the side of the road, break or lose any gear (only a shaving kit), get lost in the desert or hit a single mailbox! (We know, we’re surprised too!)

What we did do is make ten fantastic films, met loads of interesting and inspiring people, and hopefully inspired debate, dialogue and discussion around an important issue. We’re so lucky to have been able to do this and so fortunate to have you all supporting us and coming along for the ride.

So now what happens with One For Ten? Just because the films and trip is complete doesn’t mean the project is over. We’re going to all head back to our respective homes (London for Mark, Laura and Will and Washington D.C. for Megan), take a few days to recover, and then it’s back to work.

We want the project to live on long after these 5 weeks, so we’ll be working on getting everything pulled together for the online educational archive, getting DVDs created, etc. We’re also going to start sending the films to festivals, setting up screenings and talks around the project both in Europe and in the U.S., and continuing the widen the audience as much as we can.

Speaking of which, if you or someone you know would like to get in touch about setting up a screening of some of the films or a talk with any of the team, well that’d just be lovely! Shoot us an email at info@oneforten.com and let’s see what we can work out.

Thanks so much for all your support, encouragement and love. And as always, stay tuned. There’s definitely more to come.

Megan, Will, Laura and Mark

Juan Melendez spent 17 years, eight months, and one day on Florida’s death row for a crime he did not commit, before being exonerated in 2002. Here are his answers to your questions.

From Terri Hunt: After the tape was discovered, were the real killers ever prosecuted?  

The person that committed the crime, in my opinion, was Vernon James. He was murdered, by a police officer – a police officer was charged for involuntary manslaughter – two years after I was convicted and sentenced to death. But I’m glad that Vernon James had a big mouth and confessed to so many people, and even left physical evidence behind, even was in possession of the jewelry that the victim owned. So I’m glad that he left so many evidence behind that later I was able to produce them and be free.

From Terri Hunt: Also, were any of the attorneys/prosecutors reprimanded for their misconduct?   Do you think prosecutors should be held accountable?

The only thing they did was this – the prosecutor was Mr. Harry Picker. When I got out they took him off the homicide section, they never gave him no more homicide cases. And I think he retired about 3 years ago.

They should all, everybody that’s involved in this injustice should be all held accountable for it. And that way we can stop them [from doing it to others]. That’s one thing, they should take the immunity away from them. When they know that they have an innocent man in their hands and they still process the crime, they should be held accountable for it, they should pay.

From Jim Misiano: Could you ask Juan how he knew so many of the details of the crime according to Luna’s testimony?

Luna Falcon all his talk, all he say about the crime was details that was already known to the general public, to the news media, to people talking, blah blah blah. Luna Falcon did not know nothing either. It was details that was already known to the general public. He know that the man was shot with a .38, all he had to do was to say well Juan told me he shot him with a .38. He know that the man was stripped of his jewelry, well Juan told me he stripped him of his jewelry, because all that was in the newspaper.

From The Injustice Archive: How was he able to keep up hope?

Pen pals help you a lot. Every time you get a letter….It helps a lot, it helps you to move on, because you feel like you not alone when they write. And the family support is very big. My mama and my aunts they play a big role in my survival. There’s a lot of times, I’m not going to lie to you, I came close to committing suicide. A lot of my friend committed suicide. I remember the time that I was very close to do it, a friend of mine, named Samuel Rivera, he just hanged himself. And it felt like an epidemic….And that’s what the demons used to tell me, said why you got to go through all this? You supposed to be a Puerto Rican man, a real macho, don’t satisfy them, satisfy yourself. You say you didn’t do it, you think they gonna believe you? They gonna kill you anyway.

So now when my friend killed himself , I nearly killed myself too. So I tell the runner, give me the garbage bag. So when the guard ain’t looking he swing that garbage bag inside my cell. I take that bag and I twist it all up. I made a rope, then I put a noose in it. Then I look at the bunk, and I look at the rope, and I say to myself, I better lay down and think about this a little bit more.

So I put the garbage bag under the bunk so when the guards come round doing their counting they don’t see it, and I laid down. When I laid down, amigo, I fall in a deep deep deep sleep. And I started dreaming that I’m a little kid again, doing the things I used to do when I was a little kid – the things that make me happy, the things that make me smile. I born in Brooklyn, New York, but I was raised in the island of Puerto Rico. They took me back when I was a just a little kid. And when I get up in the morning and I look to the east side, there’s a wonderful mountain, and if I walk 6 minutes towards the south, I find myself in the most beautiful beach in the world. At least to me.

So here I am, dreaming that I’m swimming in the beautiful Caribbean sea, the water’s warm, the sun is bright, the sky is blue. The palm trees look so good, it’s a beautiful day. Then, I get to see something that I never saw before. Four dolphins they coming my way, and then they pass me, and then they turn around. And a pair got on one side and a pair got on another side and they start flipping and jumping like dolphins do. I’m having a ball in there, I’m so happy.

Then, I look to the shore, and it’s a beautiful lady, waving at me, smiling at me. And she seems so happy. And I know in the dream why she is happy, She’s happy because I’m happy. That’s my dear mother. And I wake up, and when I wake up, the bunk smell like a beach.

So I got that rope that I was meant to take my life with and I walked straight to the toilet with it and I look at the toilet and I look at the rope and I say I don’t wanna die! And I flush it. It was lots and lots and lots of beautiful dreams. Every time I got depressed, every time I want out of there, every time suicide thoughts came to my mind, I would pray to God, send me a beautiful dream. And I was wise enough to grab all them dreams like a sign of hope that one day I would be out of there, I would be free.

Our next and final interview is with Juan Melendez, who spent 17 years, eight months, and one day on Florida’s death row for a crime he did not commit, before being exonerated in 2002. Have a look at his story here and then submit your questions by Tuesday. You can submit your questions on our Facebook, via Twitter by using the hashtag #oneforten or by emailing them to info@oneforten.

Here are Clarence’s answers to your questions:

From Jasmine Pilloni:  Even if in your situation it didn’t really help, what do you think about witnesses that, like in your case, decide to talk of what they know/have seen such a long time after the trial? Could it be fear or just unawareness of the possible consequences of their silence?

I think it’s not only fear. I think that they just don’t want to get involved. That’s the bottom line. They just don’t want to get involved until it’s their loved one or someone they know.

Oh yeah, there’s lots of pressure. Keep em quiet.

From Katherine Lockton:  I want to know how he feels towards the people that convicted him because of his race?

If anyone who has been mistreated or done wrong is not angry, there’s something wrong with them. So quite naturally I was angry, but I’ve moved on past that. Because see, worrying and grieving over that, it will destroy an individual. It will make you do something. So hate aint going to change anything and I can’t get that time back that I’ve lost. So I realize I got to move on forward with my life.

From Petra De Jong:  He never got any compensation up to date. Does he have hope that he ever will?

As of today I have never received any compensation and matter of fact when I first came home, they had me charged with 56 thousand dollars back child support and still to this day they still want me to pay back child support. Hopefully one day I will receive compensation. I’m hopeful for that.

From Ben Preston: Did you ever have periods during all those years where you were sure you would never escape?

No, that was what kept me going. Hope. Support from people I never even met, people writing letters, giving me encouragement, telling me to continue to keep the faith and believe that one day somebody was going to look at the case and do the right thing. That’s what kept me going.

Submit your questions for each of our exonerees on our Facebook, via Twitter by using the hashtag #oneforten or by emailing them to info@oneforten. Next up is Clarence Brandley, whose story is one of blatant racism, misconduct and lies. Check it out here and then shout out what you want us to ask him by Saturday!

Here are John’s answers to your questions:

From Jim Misiano: Is he mad at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for ruling against the 14 million dollars?

Yeah I was mad but not with just him, I was mad with all five of them. He was a duck to be honest with you. The man hadn’t said a word in like 4, 5 or 6 years, that was his first time coming out and to come out against a decision like that, when you know that their office alone had overturned 4 or 5 cases out of this particular office, New Orleans Parish. For him to say that we didn’t show a pattern. Why did we have to show a pattern when your court is the one that’s been overturning these cases?

So I was not just mad with him, maybe more with him because he was the one that wrote the decision when he hadn’t wrote nothing or said nothing in all them years, I think that wasn’t the one he should have come out on. And I believe it was deliberately given to him too, to do it so it wouldn’t be a racist kind of matter so played in to the Uncle Tom role all the way down the line. But I’m more mad with all five of them because five made the decision, not one.

From Lisa Welsh Robbins: What are some of the key factors needed to re-integrate exonerates into society? Do those factors differ from re-integrating a prisoner who has done his time and is released (as opposed to someone exonerated)?

Exactly the same trauma, there’s no difference. We might weigh the fact that that individual is innocent and serving time, so his stress could be greater. I don’t believe that, I really don’t. I can’t really answer that question because I’ve never been in there for something I did. But I’m assuming that if I am guilty of something and I’m in prison, I’m still being away from everything I love and everything that I would like to do, so I don’t think that changes whether you did it or not. Everybody wants their freedom, everybody wants their choice, the opportunity not to have your choices made for you. In prison, choices are made for you.

So whether you’re innocent or not, I don’t think that has anything to do with the condition that you’re living under and the things that you’re going to have to endure while you’re there. I think everybody’s going to go through the same thing, that aspect of prison life. So then everybody needs the same kind of recovery, the same type of treatment to build their life back up again. Because it’s like when you drop someone in Vietnam or in war, the mentality that they take upon, how they got to adjust their life to violence and everything that’s around them. It’s the same in prison, you have to readjust your life, you’re not used to anything like that, you’re not used to that type of lifestyle. So you have to learn how to adjust with that and deal with that and cope with that.

Whether you’re innocent or not, that’s the reality, so I don’t think it’s no different. I think we both deserve the same type of help, the same type of consideration when we come home because we still have to rebuild our life. If you want me to be a productive citizen, you need to help me become a productive citizen. Well when you don’t want me to be a productive citizen, when I slip and do something, you need to accept that, because you need to know that you didn’t give me any help or you didn’t reach out to help yourself.

From Terri Hunt:  After 18 years on death row, what has John found to be the hardest thing to deal with upon his reintroduction to society after exoneration? 

What you lost you can’t get back. I think that’s the hardest thing, [the] rebuilding period. The fact that I lost 18 years. That was my youth…I think what I can’t get back is them years I lost with my sons, my grandmother died while I was in prison, my father died while I was in prison. Those are the hardest things…learning how to be a father without those coaches. You took those coaches away from me, you know what I’m saying? You took a part of me that I can’t get back.

Yeah I have my freedom now, yeah I can go on with life but I’m still missing that, I’m still missing that nourishing that a mother would give, a father would give to his son, to show me how to be a better father…I don’t even know how to be a father, you took that away from me too. So now I’m dealing with grown men, my sons were 6 and 4 I come home and they’re 24 and 22, I don’t have any right to get in to their life, you know? This is how I’m supposed doing that when they was young, you took that away from me. That’s hard to deal with.

I’ve just been blessed to have the right supporting cast but what happens to most of those guys, they go right back to prison. 90 percent of them go right back and especially right here in Louisiana…So right now I’ve done beat all the odds you know. I never had no serious problems yet, with the law. As a matter of fact, now I get the chance to teach them, make them understand that we’re humans too. I get a chance to go teach to would-be lawyers, make them understand how important it is that they honor their job, that they honor their commitment…I love being that extra hand now. I love going from one side of the fence to the other side and try to make sure that this don’t happen to other families. To try to do anything in my power .Why God put me on this Earth [is] to do something to make sure that this don’t happen to the next… I had to go through all that to do all this. You know, that’s the exchange. But I still wish I could have some of that back.

I don’t believe that if that hadn’t happened to me that I’d be doing what I’m doing now. So I love what I’m doing now, I love having that opportunity to help others when they come home. It’s crazy that that had to make me this, but I love who I am now and I wouldn’t trade that for nothing in the world. And the sad part of that is that made me who I am now.

We’d like to show our appreciation with a custom One For Ten gif:

But, we’re not done yet! We still have four days left to continue raising money for the project and we’re trying to raise an extra $1500.

We’ve had a lot of help so far from people who donated their time and efforts (for example: the lovely Mr. Lars, who built our site and is constantly making small edits to it while we’re on the road), and we’d love to be able to compensate them for their work.

Also, an additional $1500 will allow us to enter the film into festivals all around the world and to set up screenings and talks around the project, so that we can continue expanding the audience even after filming wraps. Maybe we’ll even be able to bring One For Ten to your town!

So if you would be so kind as to keep donating, sharing, shouting, Facebooking, tweeting and basically telling everyone and their momma about us, and we’ll see if we can’t blow this fundraising goal out of the water. In case you haven’t already, you can donate here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/931882877/one-for-ten-innocent-on-death-row/

Thank you, thank you again, we can’t say it enough.

Love, hugs and sunshine from New Orleans,
Megan and the One For Ten team

Submit your questions for each of our exonerees on our Facebook, via Twitter by using the hashtag #oneforten or by emailing them to info@oneforten. Next up is John Thompson, who was on Louisiana’s death row for nearly 2 decades because of blatant prosecutorial misconduct and hiding of evidence. Be sure to shout out your questions before Wednesday!

Here are Sabrina’s answers to your questions:

From Lisa Welsh Robbins: Was she able to grieve her baby’s death or was she just “stuck” in survival mode at that point? 

I wasn’t able to grieve. I never got the chance to go to the funeral, I didn’t know where he was buried and all that until I got out. I just was stuck there, in survival mode trying to live.

From Lisa Welsh Robbins:  Also, death row is obviously horrible for anyone (male or female), but does she feel it’s tougher for a woman since we tend to be more social and nurturing beings? Does the solitary aspect of it magnify for a woman?

Yes it does, because if you don’t have a strong constitution you will literally go crazy. I have seen people go crazy in their cell and they wasn’t on death row. To sit in a cell 23 hours a day looking at walls, and there’s nothing else for you to do, you will literally lose your mind. You have to have a strong constitution for this in any case.

From Petra De Jong: Does Sabrina feel that the plight of female DR inmates sometimes gets overlooked because there are so few of them?

 Yes, I do. And I still think there’s a lot of females out there. But I think the men, they spend more time on death row than females, that’s what I’ve heard over the years.

From Dodie Junkert: Did she feel as though the interrogators were able to assess her reasonable/rational behavior as a woman or did a lot of her actions “not make sense” to the male interrogators, leading to additional unwarranted suspicion? 

Well they weren’t emotional to me at all. They were…you did it, point blank. They didn’t care how I felt, lady you did it., that’s all.

From The Injustice Archive: What is the first thing that you did when you were finally set free?

Go to my mother in laws house to see my son. I had to get the lawyer to take me over there, cause she wouldn’t let me see him.

When I walked out, I walked out of the courtroom actually and when my trial first was going on, it was cameras was everywhere. But that night when I walked out the courtroom, there was only one lady there, and only one camera. And she was trying to talk to me, but I didn’t want to talk to her. I just wanted to get over and see my son, that was the only thing I had on my mind.

From Nick O’Connell: How difficult was reintegrating into society? What services should the state provide to exonerates to ease that transition? 

It’s very hard when you’ve been locked up so long, meeting other people is a hard thing for me. I’m a loner now, and I think they should have some kind of counseling for people who’ve been put in prison like that and exonerated because it’s a lot to do with your mental state. And I do have issues with you know being scared all the time, (thinking) you know what my life would be like or who’s gong to come and mess with me or are they going to lock me up again. And I’ve never had counseling, but I would like to go through that….

It has, it has affected me tremendously because even now, today, when my children, my husband are asleep, I walk through the house and check them constantly. I still don’t sleep that good cause I want to make sure nothing happens on my watch. Even down to my dogs. I mean I just it’s like a mechanism that just goes off in my head a certain time of night and I’ll just get up and I’ll just check the house.

From Frank & Nick O’Connell: What was the experience like for your family members? Both when you were convicted and when you were exonerated? 

Being on death row, you’re not the only one who serves time, your family serves time too. My mom, she went homeless and everything just trying to tell everybody what Mississippi was doing to me and she just was really depressed…But since I’ve been free you know, they’re happy. We’re closer than ever.

Submit your questions for each of our exonerees on our Facebook, via Twitter by using the hashtag #oneforten or by emailing them to info@oneforten. Next up is Sabrina Butler, the only female death row exoneree, so get your questions in for her before Saturday.

Here are Gary’s answers to your questions:

From The Injustice Archive:  I’d love to know how he felt about his half sister back then and how he feels about her now. Was he able to forgive her?

She won’t talk to me. I don’t really want to talk to her because I know I’ll say something stupid and she’ll run to the police and get me arrested for some kind of stupid shit, harassment or something like that. But no, I won’t talk to her. I’ve talked to her boyfriend, I’ve tried to get him to go into a lawsuit with me to file against her but he said he’s afraid the prosecution would come back on him if he did. He wouldn’t tell the truth. He told me the truth but eh wouldn’t tell them the truth.

From Katie Julie Deadman: I’d like to know how being on death row has changed him. 

It destroyed it [my life]. It destroyed my relationship with my children and my first wife, we had to get a divorce. We’ve since become good friends but I mean, it destroyed our hopes of a dream home, it destroyed all of that. I can’t get a job. I mean I went back to college when I got off of death row for respiratory therapy, 6 months from graduating that’s when they hire students. They seen I been convicted of a capital muder and they laughed. They said ‘no hospital in this country’s gonna hire you.’ So you can’t get a decent job, so it’s destroyed my life. I had to go on disability, and it’s hard living off $900 a month.

From Katie Julie Deadman: And if there are any positives he can draw from it in the sense of wisdom, empathy, reflection?

Sure. While I was on death row I learned how to research the law. I learned how to file law suits on my own.

From Vicky McKenna: How do people react to him even now?

Anybody that knew me knew I didn’t do the crime. People don’t react negatively toward me, I mean anybody that sits and gets to know me for long enough know’s i’m full of shit, you know, i’m not a killer. I try to put on a gruff attitude so people don’t mess with me you know, but if people just get to know me a little bit they know i’m just a big old teddy bear. There’s not really, I’ve not been come at with a negative attitude. I don’t know if it’s my attitude or what but it’s… I don’t find people treating me any different from anybody else.

From Vicky McKenna: Has he forgiven his so called family?

No. No. I means that was just unforgivable to me. That was my sister. Like I say, if I had’ve done a crime she was supposed to try to help me anyway she could. I would have had her. I would have. My children get into some kind of cime, I will help them any way I can. And you don’t go to the police about family.

Submit your questions for each of our exonerees on our Facebook, via Twitter by using the hashtag #oneforten or by emailing them to info@oneforten.

Here are Randy’s answers to your questions:

From Andrea Dammig: You are almost 9 years free. What do you think after such this time is the most important thing you´ve done to forget this nightmare? Have you made a therapy or something like this ? What did you do to cope with your traumatic experiences ? 

Well one thing is, you never forget. But when I first got out in May 2004, I spent a week at my mother’s house and I went to Springfield, Missouri with an old girlfriend and I spent 4 years there. I started framing houses, doing construction work at age 53 for 7 dollars an hour. I had an old 76 Chevy truck that I still have out there. I worked on it, got it running. I realise I couldn’t climb as good as I once did so I went to a careers center. I was honest with them, I told them where I’ve been, what I’ve done, I showed them newspaper clippings and I got a job in a printing company. I started out at 9 dollars an hour with benefits and worked my way up to an operator on a printing press making 16 bucks an hour, worked 12 hour days. I went to therapy for 2 years, a forensic psychologist, and in July 2006 I got involved with Witness to Innocence. I went back and told my psychologist what I’m doing and he told me ‘you don’t need to come see me any  more Randy, you need to keep doing what you’re doing with WTI.’

So it actually saves me 100 dollars an hour from sitting on his couch to do what I do. But you never forget this, you never forget this. It’s deep inside my heart, it’s deep inside my mind. I try not to dwell on it on a daily basis but as I said, there’s always something that brings it to the forefront. WTI is different for me, I can compartmentalize what we do and why we do it, as difficult as it is, but we know we’re having an effect on the death penalty in this country. It’s been proven by the last 5 states that have abolished it, states that we’ve worked in. So it’s a bit rewarding for me to know that I’m doing something that has an effect, that might save somebody who’s innocent from being executed someday.

From Jeff: How can I help? What can be done to help exonerees?

I think reach out, emails, phone calls, letters of encouragement. Give them guidance, where to find employment, mental health services. It’s not something that’s offered to us. It’s offered to actual guilty people who get paroled. I walked out with 26 dollars, 30 cents in my pocket and they said good luck. Each and every one of these exoneree’s have PTSD, they do in varying degrees, they have PTSD. And I’m not ashamed to admit it, because every one of us has issues you know. A lot of us are alcoholic, a lot of us are drug addicts, some end up back in prison who don’t have a support system once they get out. I was fortunate, I had a good family who supported me all those years. A lot of these guys are sleeping under bridges, they have nothing and the state refuses to help them because if they help them it makes them liable. And if they become liable then there’s a civil suit and tryng to get exonerated through pardons and trying to get job placement, housing, clothes on your back. Everything that they took away from you 20 years earlier, they refuse to help you get back. That’s what the public has to realise with these exonerees. Some legislators like to say, well 142, they’re not all actually innocent. A lot of prosecutors and public officials will actually say that. After you fought for your life to get off death row, to get out of prison, and then to finally be free and they still want to leave that cloud over your head by refusing to pardon you or refusing to give you a certificate of innocence.

From Terry: What were your views on the death penalty before your arrest, and did they change after? And what are your thoughts on the death penalty for the guilty? 

Well, I came from a conservative farm community you know. I was born and raise Catholic, had a granddad that was a deputy sheriff, my brother is 33 and a half years on the Illinois State Police. We believed in the death penalty. I was naïve. You turn on the tv, you see somebody being handcuffed, chained up, hauled in and out of the court room, hell, they look guilty to me. Charged with a viscious crime, but I was naïve and so was my family and so was a lot of people from my own town. They believed and had that blind faith in the system that police don’t lie, prosecutors don’t fabricate evidence. And that’s why it’s a human factor, even if prosecutors do everything above board, there’s still the human factor: that humans make mistakes…They’re humans. Even if you try and do a good job, you’re a human, humans make mistakes. So why they believe that the judicial system is so airtight with errors that nothing can ever happen. Once a jury convicts you, you’re guilty, that’s it, that’s all they want to hear.

One For Ten is almost halfway complete, if you can believe it! We had a wonderful time filming yesterday with Randy Steidl in Illinois and hearing his amazing story. We left Illinois and drove all the way down to Music City, where we’re camped out at the Nashville KOA. Will and Mark and plugging away on the edit now, and we’ll share the video with you tomorrow morning, so stay tuned!

But in the meantime, we’re writing to let you know that we need your help. We don’t have enough money to make our last two films. These last two stories, with Clarence Brandley in Texas and Juan Melendez in New Mexico, are incredibly important, and we are so very committed to making them happen. But we need you to get us there.

We’ve launched another crowdfunding campaign, this time on Kickstarter. This is great for you U.S. folks, since it’s in dollars instead of pounds, but here’s the thing: unlike Indiegogo, with Kickstarter you only get the money if you hit your funding goal. That means we have to raise 6,000 dollars or we won’t get any of the generous donations people make.

So we need you to lend us a hand. If you can toss a few dollars our way, that’s amazing. No amount is too small! Just think about this: We have 3000 “likes” on Facebook. If all of them donated just 2 dollars, we’d hit our goal. So even if you can only give us a few bucks, we’ll love you forever for it. You can donate here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/931882877/one-for-ten-innocent-on-death-row.

If you’ve already donated before, you can still be a huge help! Send our Kickstarter campaign to anyone you know that might be interested. Send it to people you aren’t sure are interested. Put it on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, anywhere you can. Tell your friends why you like the project, why it’s important to you, why you think they should donate. Send them one of the films. Just do whatever you can to let people know about us and what we’re doing.

Thanks for all you guys have already done to help us get this far. Now hopefully with just another small nudge or two, we can get to the finish.

Love,

Megan and the One For Ten team

Submit your questions for each of our exonerees on our Facebook, via Twitter by using the hashtag #oneforten or by emailing them to info@oneforten. Next up is Randy Steidl, so get your questions in for him before Saturday.

Damon Thibodeaux was interrogated for 9 hours before falsely confessing to the killing of his 14-year-old step-cousin.

Here are Damon’s answers to your questions:

From Petra De Jong:  Has he met (m)any of the other death row exonerees? Is there someone among them whom he admires and if so, why?

I have. Over the weekend, I was at the Innocence Network Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. I got to meet quite a few exonerees. A whole lot of them I admire. Because they’re not hiding away in a hole somewhere after going through something like this, they’re not out living stupidly. They don’t have an attitude like, now that I have my freedom back and my compensation money, I’m going to just forget the rest of the world and just do what I want to do. It’s not just any one exoneree who I admire, it’s the whole lot of them because it’s not easy trying to put your life back together after going through something like this and spending, 10, 15, 20 years in prison for something you didn’t do. It’s not easy, but we get out and we fight to put our life back together, take back what they took from us. It’s not easy most times, but it can be done and that’s what I admire.

From Geraldine Warren: Damon, after being sentenced to death, did you fight against your false confession? What legal channels are available for doing so? 

It just depends on the case. The Innocence Project, the organization that took my case, they pretty much only handle DNA cases. I guess it just depends on the cases themselves. You have some cases that have more clear cut evidence, some cases have little to no evidence that can be tested. You just never know until you read in to the case and apply whatever law is applicable to the case.

From Katie Julie Deadman:  Personally speaking, I’d be interested in knowing what role faith/spirituality (and forgiveness) plays in keeping sane in solitary confinement.

You have to have something to believe in I guess. Whether you believe in nothing, you still believe in something. There are Muslims on death row as well, Christians, it plays a big part. You have to first come to terms with your own mortality, they’re going to possibly come get me, carry me away and kill me some day. You come to terms with what’s next after I die, what’s next. Faith and spirituality on death row and in prison in general.

From Katie Julie Deadman:  Also, with the advances in DNA retrieval, do these men who have been persecuted yet ‘rescued’ via DNA evidence think we should move to a Big Brother style en masse DNA database, where we are legally required to submit our DNA for monitoring purposes? 

There are a lot of cases out there that don’t have DNA in them, so lets say that we had a system like that. It wouldn’t alleviate that problem. As far as having a database for DNA, that just depends on the corruption that would follow. Every time that something’s created, someone uses it for the wrong reasons. We’ve seen it all through history. Is it a good idea? Yeah, sure. It would make it so much easier to solve a lot of DNA crimes. Are we responsible enough to have something like that? No, we’re not, especially in a system like this that’s manipulated for political purposes. It would be a good idea, but I would not support it in a system like this because it’s too corruptible.