April 16
USA:
Sr. Helen Prejean to Receive National Social Justice Leadership
Award----Ignatian Solidarity Network, a national social justice organization
that partners with Catholic Jesuit institutions will present the award on May
7, 2013, in New Orleans, in recognition of Sr. Prejean's passionate advocacy
against the death penalty.
The Ignatian Solidarity Network will honor Sr. Helen Prejean, C.S.J., with the
"Robert M. Holstein: Faith that Does Justice Award" on Tuesday, May 7, 2013, at
an award reception in New Orleans, Louisiana. Sr. Prejean is an
internationally-recognized advocate against the death penalty whose passion is
rooted in experiences of ministering to death row inmates. She has spoken
around the globe and authored 2 books including Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness
Account of the Death Penalty, which held a spot on the New York Times
Bestseller List for 31 weeks in 1994.
The award comes at a key time in the capital punishment debate. Recently,
Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley signed legislation ending the death penalty
in his state, and other states are either considering the issue or have had
recent votes fail. According to a recent report by Amnesty International, the
number of U.S. executions in 2012 was identical to 2011, though only nine
states carried executions compared with 13 in 2011.
The Robert M. The Holstein award, a national recognition, annually honors an
individual who has demonstrated a significant commitment to leadership for
social justice grounded in his or her faith. The Ignatian Solidarity Network
(ISN) is a national social justice education and advocacy organization inspired
by the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order
of Catholic priests and brothers. ISN works primarily with individuals
connected with Jesuit universities, high schools, parishes, and social
ministries throughout the United States.
Sr. Prejean began her prison ministry in 1981 when she dedicated her life to
the poor of New Orleans. Since then, she has been committed to educating
citizens about the death penalty and counseling individual death row prisoners.
She has accompanied six men to their deaths. In 1994, Sr. Prejean turned her
experiences into the book titled, Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of
the Death Penalty, which was later developed into a major motion picture
starring Susan Sarandon as Sr. Prejean and Sean Penn as a death row inmate. The
movie received 4 Oscar nominations including Tim Robbins for Best Director,
Sean Penn for Best Actor, Susan Sarandon for Best Actress, and Bruce
Springsteen's Dead Man Walkin for Best Song.
Sr. Prejean's 2nd book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of
Wrongful Executions, was published in December 2004 and describes her
experiences of accompanying 2 men to their executions.
She continues her work as a passionate storyteller on speaking tours throughout
the U.S. and is presently working on her next book, River of Fire: My Spiritual
Journey. Sr. Prejean is a religious sister of the Congregation of St. Joseph, a
Catholic community of nearly 700 vowed women religious founded in 1650 in
France.
Sr. Prejean initially connected with the Ignatian Solidarity Network by
speaking to thousands of young people at their annual event, the Ignatian
Family Teach-In for Justice in 2003. At that event she formally introduced the
Dead Man Walking School Theater Project, and consequently Jesuit high schools
were some of the first institutions in the U.S. to perform the play.
On awarding Prejean with the national honor, ISN Executive Director,
Christopher Kerr said, "Sr. Helen has been a vital part of the Ignatian family
over the years, sharing her deep desire to end the death penalty with thousands
of Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice attendees. Her passionate voice is a
tremendous witness to work for justice grounded in faith. We are delighted to
honor her with this national award and hope it will bring greater attention to
her ministry."
The Holstein award's namesake, the late Robert (Bob) M. Holstein, was a former
California Province Jesuit priest, labor lawyer, fierce advocate for social
justice, and one of the founders of the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice.
Holstein died in 2003, but his family continues to support the work of ISN.
Supporters of this year's event include the Ignatian Solidarity Network Board
of Directors, Mr. and Mrs. Vince and Robyn Caponi, Mrs. Loretta Holstein (the
widow of the late Bob Holstein), Mr. Salvador Colon, Very Rev. David
Ciancimino, S.J. (Provincial, New York Province of the Society of Jesus), Very
Rev. Mark Lewis, S.J. (Provincial, New Orleans Province of the Society of
Jesus), Ms. Susan Sarandon (via the Susan Sarandon Foundation), Very Rev.
Michael Weiler, S.J. (Provincial, California Province of the Society of Jesus),
and the students of Xavier High School in New York City.
The previous "Robert M. Holstein: Faith that Does Justice Award" award winners
are:
2009 - Rev. Charlie Currie, S.J., former president, Association of Jesuit
Colleges & Universities
2010 - Rev. Steven Privett, S.J., president, University of San Francisco
2012 - Rev. Donald MacMillan, S.J., campus minister, Boston College
** No award was presented in 2011
The Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN) is a national social justice education
and advocacy organization inspired by the spirituality of St. Ignatius of
Loyola. ISN works primarily with individuals connected with Jesuit
universities, high schools, parishes, and social ministries throughout the
United States. Constituencies include students, faculty, parish members and
staff, alumni, current and former Jesuit Volunteer Corps members, and many
others. ISN is an independent 501(c)(3), incorporated in 2004, and currently
based in University Heights, Ohio. More information is available at their
website: www.ignatiansolidarity.net
(source: Digital Journal)
*********************************
Life After Exoneration, For The Victims On Both Sides
CELESTE HEADLEE, HOST:
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Celeste Headlee in Washington. In the summer of
2002, Brian Banks was a promising high school football player with a verbal
agreement to play college ball on a scholarship at USC. But when another
student accused him of rape, that all changed.
He was arrested, charged, and then facing a potential term of 41 years to life,
he accepted a plea bargain and served five years behind bars. But then his
accuser admitted she lied about the rape, and Banks was exonerated. Earlier
this month, the Atlanta Falcons signed him to play professional football.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, Banks is one of more than
1,000 individuals exonerated in the U.S. After a wrongful conviction, the lives
of both the accused and the victim of the original crime are permanently
altered.
So if you or someone else you know was exonerated, or if you were the victim of
a crime in a case that's resulted in exoneration, we want to hear from you.
Tell us your story. Our phone number is 800-989-8255. The email address is
t...@npr.org. Or just go to our website, npr.org, and then click on TALK OF THE
NATION to join our conversation here.
Later on in the program we're going to explain what bitcoins are and how they
work, but first, Shareef Cousin was served on death row at the age of 16 for a
murder he did not commit. He served several years in Louisiana's Angola prison
before he was exonerated. And he joins us now by smartphone from New Orleans.
Welcome back to the program, Shareef.
SHAREEF COUSIN: Thank you.
HEADLEE: So going back - I mean I certainly don't want to take you back to a
traumatic period, but tell us how one could possibly end up on death row if you
didn't commit the crime. How does that happen?
COUSIN: Well, I think it is several factors. I think the most important factor
that we cannot turn a blind eye to is that - the character of race, especially
here in New Orleans. Anytime that there is a white victim who is murdered, it
is more than likely that whoever is convicted of murdering that white victim is
going to be sentenced to death. They're going to seek the death penalty in more
than a majority of those cases.
In my case, we talk about the French Quarters of New Orleans because that's
where my murder happened at. Anytime that there is a murder in the French
Quarters, let alone if it's a white person that's been murdered by a black
perpetrator, then someone is going down for that crime, and someone is going
down for that crime fast.
We're talking about a murder that happened over 18 years ago. I was 16 at the
time of that crime. And a lot of times we hear the city, not just New Orleans
but a lot of the big cities, they want to find things to have all the kids
doing to keep them off the streets.
Here in New Orleans we have this what you call midnight basketball, that is
from the New Orleans Recreation Department. Well, at that time I was playing
basketball for the New Orleans Recreation Department at the time this crime
happened. Unfortunately, it was a high-profile crime and someone had to go down
for this crime fast.
And in my case, not only was I at a basketball game, but the game was even on
videotape. We have a videotape of the game.
HEADLEE: Yeah, and it was your coach, as I understand, that actually drove you
home at the time the crime was being committed. And you know, today we really
want to talk about your life now, about what happens after one is exonerated
because, you know, it's not like the happy ending of a movie, the lights dim
and then everything's great, right? I mean, what is it like to have to put your
life back together again?
COUSIN: I think that in my case, in my situation, I was very fortunate because
I had a support system initially. One my attorneys that represented me had
taken a more personal approach to help me rebuild my life. So when I came home,
I had a support system where I was able to live with one of my attorneys for
over 6 months.
She was able to - her and her husband was able to help me get into college,
help me find employment, just some of the basic things that helped me get my
life together. But I'm only 1 out of 9 that have been exonerated from death row
here in Louisiana. And I can't say the same for all 9 of us.
We have, when you come home, just like you've been at war. If you're a veteran
in the armed services, when you are at war, you are suffering from
post-traumatic stress syndrome. And I think the country has all agreed to that.
And so when a person's coming from war, our country makes sure that that person
gets the proper counseling, the proper mental health treatment at the least to
help that person to reintegrate back.
When you're coming home from prison, especially wrongfully incarcerated, we're
not getting that same treatment. So is that like some guys have turned to
drugs, alcohol, homelessness. It's a wide range of factors that takes place on
an individual when he's coming home. So I think that's one of the biggest
things that we face coming home is mental health treatment.
HEADLEE: We're speaking with Shareef Cousin, who was sentenced to death at the
age of 16 for a crime he did not commit. He served several years on death row
before his conviction was overturned. You know, there are - over 1/2 of the
American states have some form of compensation available for people who have
been wrongfully convicted. That of course means there's many states that do
not. Did you receive any restitution?
COUSIN: Well, when I was first released, Louisiana was one of many states that
didn't have a compensation law in place. So a lot of us were coming home
without compensation. It was only like 2008, 2009 that the state began to
compensate the wrongfully convicted for being on death row. At this time the
max compensation was only $150,000 for a 10-year span.
It was only last year that our legislature has upped the ante to give us
$250,000 for a 10-year span. But we have some guys that have spent 25 and 30
years in prison before they were exonerated, and the state is saying that your
life is only worth $250,000 for a max of 10 years, which equals to $25,000 a
year at a rate of $12 an hour.
So when we talk about compensation, I have say that because - so I'm going to
say no that we don't have the proper compensation. $12 an hour? And so now I
bring that back to what I was saying the first time, to race. You know, a lot
of - the majority of our guys that have been exonerated here in Louisiana have
been black men. So we have $12 an hour for a maximum of 10 years that were
spending 30 years in prison.
So I guess our legislature is saying that, well, you're a black man. For 20
years, you probably wouldn't have been employed, anyway. So there's a big
problem with compensation here in Louisiana.
HEADLEE: We're taking...
COUSIN: And to answer the question, I wasn't compensated.
HEADLEE: OK, well, we're also getting phone calls from those of you out there
listening. If you've been exonerated, or you're close to someone who has, we'd
love to hear from you on the - getting back to life once you have been
exonerated. And we have a call now from John(ph) in San Francisco, California.
John, were you exonerated for a crime you did not commit?
JOHN: Yes, that's correct. I was exonerated. Mine was a theft case, and I
served 4 years, 8 days and - excuse me, 4 years, 8 months and 8 days on a
6-year sentence. Long story short, I never had any prior arrests or
convictions, not even a parking ticket or speeding ticket, college-educated
white male, never involved in any kind of drugs or illegal activity.
And this was a theft case. A girlfriend who was sexually involved with the
deputy district attorney, who I believe was jealous, got her to allege a theft
that never occurred. And long story short, I served every day of the 6-year
sentence less the earned time because when I went up for parole, the parole
board is not interested in hearing anybody claim that they're innocent.
And I was in a state penitentiary, and I can tell you that the vast majority of
the people that I served time with admitted their crime. It's actually not true
that all inmates claim innocence. Actually, that was not my experience. In all
the facilities that I was housed at, I only met one or two people who ever
claimed that they were factually innocent.
And so the parole board denied me three years in a row, even though I was never
required to take any type of classes, like I said college-educated, homeowner,
financially stable, professional person. So I had to serve every single day of
my sentence until I was released on mandatory parole.
And later I was exonerated by the appellate court. The state appealed it to the
state supreme court, and the state supreme court refused to hear the case, and
they upheld the decision of the lower court.
HEADLEE: Well let me ask you, John, our focus today is on life after
exoneration.
JOHN: Well, it's difficult because I've got a four year, eight month and eight
day gap, roughly five years, that's hard to explain where I was during that
time frame on a resume, for example. And because everything is the Internet,
and the Internet catches up with you, you know, there are some newspaper
articles about it back then when I was convicted.
And unfortunately no one goes behind, you know, these exonerations and cleans
up the Internet from all the negative publicity back then. And so I was
actually terminated from one of my employments because an employer found out
about something, even though when I applied I answered the question truthfully
because once you've been exonerated, you may answer the question have you ever
been convicted of a crime, you may answer that no truthfully, even though
technically I was by a jury, and it was later overturned.
HEADLEE: Right.
JOHN: So the other thing I found, you know, I'll take the comments off-air, is
that even though this occurred, you know, literally 15, 18 years ago in my
life, people still don't believe you. There's a cop mentality out there.
There's a lot of district attorneys, deputy district attorneys, police officers
that once you've been charged that they will not apologize after you've been
found innocent.
HEADLEE: No, that's pretty common. John...
JOHN: They don't want to make it right.
HEADLEE: That's John calling from San Francisco, California. Thank you so much
for your call. And I want to bring in, right before we take a break, and then
we'll continue the conversation, Sam Gross, who is a professor of law at the
University of Michigan and editor of the National Registry of Exonerations.
Sam, what we're hearing both from that caller, John, and from Shareef is that
we - the system doesn't seem to be set up to help people who've been
exonerated, although it helps people, as Shareef mentions, who actually did the
crime. It doesn't seem to help those who were exonerated.
SAMUEL GROSS: Well, I'm not sure how good it is at helping people who have
committed crimes, but it certainly is not good at helping people who have been
exonerated. One of the ironies of the system for some people who are exonerated
is that services that are available to people who have served their time and
been released on parole are not available to people who have had charges
dismissed because they weren't guilty in the first place.
HEADLEE: All right, we're going to continue this conversation after a break. If
you or someone else you're close to was exonerated, or if you were the victim
in a case that resulted in exoneration, give us a call. We want to hear your
story at 800-989-8255. Or send an email to t...@npr.org. We'll be back after a
short break.
We can say that National Public Radio has confirmed two explosions from the
site of the Boston Marathon. That is all that we know right now. We'll have
more news and details on that story as it develops on NPR News. I'm Celeste
Headlee. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
HEADLEE: This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Celeste Headlee. And
again, let me reiterate NPR has confirmed two explosions at the site of the
Boston Marathon. That, at this moment, is all that we know. We will have more
details for you on that story as it develops from NPR News.
But right now we're talking about life after exoneration. Larry Peterson served
nearly 18 years for murder and rape, convicted before DNA testing. He was in
his mid-50s when he was freed. And he told NPR's Robert Siegel he had prime
years of his life taken away from him.
LARRY PETERSON: My children are grown, no chance of putting the marriage back
together. I have to come out here and play catch-up out here in this world with
all the modern technology. I'm lost when it comes to jobs today. You walk in,
you use a computer to place an application. All of these things I have to
learn.
HEADLEE: But the wrongfully convicted aren't the only ones whose lives change
when the justice system fails. So if you or someone you know was exonerated, or
if you were the victim in a case that resulted in exoneration, we want to hear
your story, 800-989-8255. Or email us at t...@npr.org. Or you can go to the
website, npr.org, and then click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Our guest, Shareef Cousin, served in Angola prison before his conviction was
overturned. And joining us now is Jennifer Thompson. In July of 1984, she was
raped at knifepoint in her home. Out of a police lineup she identified a man
named Ronald Cotton as her attacker. He was convicted and sentenced to life in
prison. He served 11 years before DNA evidence showed he wasn't the rapist.
Jennifer Thompson joins us now from member station WUNC in Chapel Hill, North
Carolina. Welcome, Jennifer.
JENNIFER THOMPSON: Thank you.
HEADLEE: So what we're talking about is what happens after the exoneration. And
I wonder what that moment was like for you when you were finally convinced it
was not Ronald Cotton that did it.
THOMPSON: You know, I've really had a hard time coming up with words to
describe that particular moment. And actually a lot of my memory of that moment
is kind of lost, and it's almost like being swallowed in some kind of black
hole because you - for 11 years, you know, you've known you were right. You've
seen this certain image in your head.
I knew how to be a victim of sexual violence, like I knew how to do that. I
mean, I had been that for 11 years. And then all of the sudden you're wrong.
And now I became an offender, and I was guilty of that. And whether it was not
malicious or intentional, it really didn't matter. I mean, it was still the
same 11 years of Ronald's life were gone.
And so the guilt and the shame were paralyzing, debilitating and then fear. I
mean, fear set in, and it just took a hold of me, and, you know, terrified that
at any minute he was going to spring up behind any dark corner and want to set
the record straight and, you know, hurt me or take something away from me.
We had both been the same age when I was raped and when he went into prison.
And now he's walking out at 33, and I was 33. And so the reality was I knew
what he had missed. And it didn't matter what we gave him or anything. You
can't get back the years. And I knew that. And I just absolutely was convinced
that he hated me because of it.
HEADLEE: And you spent a very long time not wanting to interact with him for
that reason. But when you did finally speak to him face to face, what was that
like?
THOMPSON: Well, it took about two years. You know, I had asked people, you
know, what I should do, and people, you know, would kind of look at you and
say, you know, he probably did something he never got caught for, you know,
he's probably a bad guy. And so, you know, you somehow can, like, assuage your
guilt by people telling you this.
And then, you know, the reality was I knew that I had to see this man. So it
took two years, and we met in a small church not far from where I'd been raped
13 years before. And as soon as he walked in that room, and I just started to
cry, he immediately gave me forgiveness. And it was the first time, truly, in
13 years that physically I could feel myself starting to heal.
And oddly enough, it would be the one person that I had learned to hate so much
during that time that would teach me about grace and mercy, and it was the most
amazing - outside of the birth of my children, it was the most amazing
experience of my life, and, you know, we really talked about what had happened
during those years and how we both had become victims of the system when it
fails and both, you know, victims of Bobby Poole(ph), the man who had raped me.
And so when we start talking about, you know, victims in the system and when
the system fails, I mean, the pool of victims is absolutely enormous, the
people that get damaged.
HEADLEE: And there's also this knowledge, Jennifer, that, I mean, maybe you -
I'm completely guessing here, but perhaps there was some measure of comfort to
be taken, but the perpetrator of your own rape was behind bars. Now that's not
true.
THOMPSON: There is that comfort, you know, for you as the victim. Now I have to
say that this is kind of a strange kind of like, you know, what your first
interviewer said, that you're the lucky one. And I was kind of lucky in the
sense that the DNA test that exonerated Ronald Cotton also became a cold hit on
Bobby Poole. So we did know who did it.
And we were very fortunate, too, that he was in prison at the time. Ronald
Cotton was the one who really discovered it was Bobby Poole. And so Bobby Poole
has died in prison. But this is a really important, you know, something to
understand is that we had left Bobby Poole out on the streets for another six
months after Ronald had been, originally arrested.
And Bobby Poole went on to commit many more rapes during that time. And so when
- that's why when I talk about the victims, you know, that get caught up in
this, it's just really large, and so every time we have an innocent person in
prison, we have a guilty person not. And that's something that's really
important for the listeners to understand and why getting this stuff right is
imperative on lots of different levels.
HEADLEE: That's Jennifer Thompson, and we're taking calls and stories from
those of you out here who've experienced either side, any side of this
particular thing. Nick(ph) is calling us now from Fort Collins, Colorado. Nick,
you yourself or someone that you were close to has been exonerated?
NICK: Yeah, absolutely. My father, Frank O'Connell(ph) spent 27 years in
California prison for first degree murder, which he was eventually exonerated
April 21 of last year.
HEADLEE: He was in prison for 27 years and then exonerated. And you were how
old when he went into prison?
NICK: 4.
HEADLEE: 4 years old, holy cow. So you missed most of your childhood with your
dad.
NICK: Yeah, he missed all my childhood. We did a really good job of trying to
maintain contact as well as we could given the circumstances. So it wasn't
until I was about 18, and I could visit without restriction, being that I had
to have a notarized form from the legal guardian prior to that, that we really
were able to, you know, strengthen our relationship and spend as much as we
needed in the visiting rooms. But yeah, it was different circumstances.
HEADLEE: So Nick, you know, our focus today is really about life after
exoneration, after supposedly the happy ending. What has that been like for you
and your dad?
NICK: Well, I will say it's kind of - there's a lot of challenges that come
along with it. On the one hand, absolutely you are ecstatic for the release.
You're ecstatic for your freedom. And in the beginning months, there's a lot of
excitement, and it's just a big whirlwind. And that starts to wear down.
We're getting to the point where we just - we're getting into almost a year
since he's been released, and after the initial publicity and the excitement of
the release wears down, and you start to get back to a little bit of a normal
life, there's certainly challenges that face him still. And it becomes pretty
apparent that to have a support system in place for these exonerees when they
are released is imperative because essentially what the state does is when they
release them, they provide them zero resources, zero support, and they're
generally still fighting it. On many, many cases, they're still fighting and
contending that the person's guilty even though it's been demonstrated and
ruled in a court of law that they weren't fairly convicted in the 1st place.
So essentially they're homeless unless family, friends or the organizations
that have worked to free them provide such support.
HEADLEE: That's Nick calling from Fort Collins, Colorado. Nick, thank you so
much for your call. Yeah. Sam Gross, go ahead.
COUSIN: Can I add something?
HEADLEE: Uh-huh. Shareef, is that you speaking?
COUSIN: Yeah. What I want to say is that like the re-entry experience for
exonerees, they mirror the same struggles and challenges faced by those that
are parolees. You know, like all formerly incarcerated individuals, you know,
even exonerees are alienated from traditional sources of help and support.
You know, like many other trauma survivors, you know, even exonerees have a
tendency to isolate themselves, you know, and we begin to avoid experiences
that might remind us of the pain that we had to endure.
HEADLEE: Oh, yeah.
COUSIN: And, you know, just being wrongfully convicted, you know, when we do
win our freedom, you know, often time not only are we penniless, not only do we
find ourselves unemployable and dependent on others, but we even experience
family friction. We experience poverty. We experience depression, just like
other individuals returning home from their prison sentences. You know, this is
a combination for disaster.
HEADLEE: Yeah.
COUSIN: You know, some exonerees and formerly incarcerated, you know, result in
homelessness, you know, self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, societal
alienation and even going back to prison in some cases. And so a lot of times
when we look at exonerees, you know, we don't take into the total picture that
not only are we wrongfully incarcerated, but we're also formerly incarcerated
individuals.
You know, there is like a - there is like almost no distinction. We think that
when you're exonerated, you do go home, that that's the end of your life. No.
That's only the beginning of your life. And in a lot of situations, not only
there's no support for exonerees, the wrongfully convicted, there are no
support systems established for just formerly incarcerated.
HEADLEE: Right.
COUSIN: So, you know, there's really no separation in this area right here.
HEADLEE: That's Shareef Cousin, who was sentenced to death at the age of 16 for
a crime he did not commit. Sam Gross, let me take this to you, professor of law
at the University of Michigan. You run the - or edit the National Registry of
Exonerations, which catalogs known exonerations, and you've done it since 1989.
How many exonerated people are there currently living in the U.S.?
GROSS: Well, I actually haven't done it since 1989.
HEADLEE: Oh, I see.
GROSS: The registry covers exonerations that occurred since 1989. The registry
has only been in existence for almost a year now, and our purpose is to try to
collect and make available information on as many exonerations as we can.
We - I am familiar with the story of Mr. O'Connell's father, Frank O'Connell,
and it's a terribly disturbing, you know, tragic story. He didn't mention it,
but part of the reason for his conviction was that the detectives who were
investigating the case essentially pressured the - a witness who said he could
not see who the gunman was, to say that the gunman was Nick's father.
HEADLEE: Yeah.
GROSS: And that didn't become apparent until many years later. And there are
many stories like that. There are probably many more than we know about. When
we first released the registry in May of last year, we had 891 exonerations. As
of today, it's 1,096, more than 200 more, and most of those are new cases that
occurred. About 65 of them, perhaps, are cases that have occurred in that
interval, maybe fewer than that.
Most of them are old cases that we're finding out about by doing more research,
by publicizing our existence so people write in and tell us about cases that we
didn't know about. The - one of the main purposes of creating this resource and
this - and the website that we maintain is to let people know that there is a
place where this information can be obtained and where they can let us know so
we can begin to learn about these tragic mistakes and, with any luck, learn not
to repeat them as often.
HEADLEE: You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. And we're
talking about life after exoneration, which includes many, many people, as
Jennifer Thompson has pointed out. You just heard Sam Gross, professor of law
at the University of Michigan. Jennifer Thompson actually identified a man as
her rapist in 1984. That man was then exonerated 11 years later.
And, Jennifer, I wonder what would change if we did. I mean, would it be easier
for you to get over what happened, to move on, if the system were better
prepared to help out exonerees, if it were better prepared to help out Ronald
Cotton?
THOMPSON: Oh, absolutely, because, you know, I do work with a lot of exonerees
now, I also work with victims when they, you know, discover that the person
that they ID'ed or the family members that, you know, they thought that killed
their loved one, the guilt that they suffer and the shame that they suffer.
And it's - it truly is reopening, like, all the pain and the trauma and the
hurt and the fears and everything that you thought that you had worked through.
It just starts all over again. But then on top of that, the reality is that you
know that you somehow, you know, were a part of taking away someone's life and
their freedom and changing their families.
And so if we had something in place that we knew could assist these men and
women, which is the least that we owe them - I mean, we've taken them away and
locked them up and almost killed them, and God knows what else they've suffered
when they were in prison, for the 10, 12, 30, 38 years that they were locked
away. It's the least that we owe them.
And a lot of these men and women aren't even getting a simple apology. The
system isn't even looking at them saying we recognize we've made a mistake that
you were an innocent person.
HEADLEE: Well, let me take that to Shareef, did anyone in law enforcement or
anyone in the criminal justice system ever say to you, Shareef, I'm sorry?
COUSIN: No. That has never happened. No, it has never happened in my situation.
And I think this, you know, just the thought of that there is no "systematic
approach" to help an exoneree to, you know, reintegrate by the community and
get their life together are here in New Orleans. Our organization that I
co-founded, Resurrection After Exoneration. We are the only organization in the
state, as a matter of fact, the only organization in the world that is ran by
death row exonerees and we provide basic, you know, transitional housing for
the wrongfully convicted. There is no other organization in the country that's
providing that service to exonerees.
HEADLEE: Right.
COUSIN: We make sure our fellow comrades get counseling, get mentoring. You
know, we thought that we have to actually help ourselves because we're going to
wait on a system to do something to help us then we might as well have been
executed.
HEADLEE: Ok. We're going to continue with Shareef Cousin in just a moment.
Thanks to Jennifer Thompson joining us from member station WUNC in Chapel Hill,
North Carolina, and Sam Gross of the University of Michigan joined us by phone
from in office in Ann Arbor in Michigan. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR
News. I'm Celeste Headlee.
HEADLEE: In the meantime, though, we continue with our conversation about life
after exoneration. With us from a smartphone in New Orleans is Shareef Cousin
who was sentenced to death at the age of 16 for a crime, a murder that he
didn't commit. He served several years on death row in Louisiana's Angola
prison. And on the line with us from Fort Belvoir in Virginia is Ellis. Ellis,
you are Shareef's eldest brother, correct?
ELLIS COUSIN: Yes.
HEADLEE: And because our discussion today is about life after exoneration, what
has it been like since Shareef came home?
COUSIN: Well, now it's better because he is doing, you know, doing good for
himself this time around. You know? But when he first came out, you know, it's
tough because, you know, like he had mentioned, he had to look to family to
help him out. So, you know, every time I would get a chance, I would try to
help him out financially.
HEADLEE: OK. So you would try to help financially. How long, Shareef, did it
take you, do you think, to get back on your feet?
COUSIN: You know, financially it wasn't that difficult. I think, you know, a
lot of our families don't be equipped to actually help us deal with some of the
mental anguishes that we carry - the hurt, the anger, the, you know, the
depression that we carry from being in prison for something that you did not
commit. And I don't think that's a sign that's really educated on just the fact
of how it affects a person.
HEADLEE: OK.
COUSIN: So, you know, my family did help me. My family was there for me,
financially, but I don't think they would've cooped to help me deal with some
of the mental things that I was going through at the time.
HEADLEE: Well, let me bring that back to you, Ellis. Then what about your
family. I mean, did the whole family emotionally able to cope with this or
could you have used help from a professional?
COUSIN: Definitely could use help. And unlike, you know, my sister - I have a
sister right now, they probably would not admit it, but she's definitely having
the hardest time because she was the one who really was there with Shareef in
the time he was incarcerated. She was the one responsible for the prosecutor's
ADA in the case, being sanctioned for prosecutorial misconduct and, you know,
so she's having the toughest time with it. But I would tell you, even me being
the eldest - you know, Shareef lived with me when he was in 7 or 8th grade for
a while.
And so, now like his fraternal, you know, parent. And when it happened, you
know, first of all, you know, I own a dry cleaner in Massachusetts and I
couldn't function because, you know, I believed in him when he told me that he
was innocent and actually during the death penalty phase, he asked us not to
plea for his life for something he didn't do. And so no one from the family
testified during the death penalty phase. So basically at the time I owned a
dry cleaners in Massachusetts and basically gave that up because, you know, for
me at the time, once you're served the plate of injustice, there's no really no
such thing as justice. You know, there's no such thing as justice. You know?
There's nothing else that's important. So it was important to me at the time to
really, you know, look at saving his life.
HEADLEE: Yeah. There's victims all around in these particular cases. I want to
say thank you to Ellis in Fort Belvoir, Virginia for calling in, oldest brother
of Shareef Cousin. Shareef Cousin, sentenced to death at age 16. Served years
on death row before his conviction was overturned and he was exonerated.
Shareef joined us by smartphone from New Orleans in New Orleans. Thank you so
much for speaking with us and good luck.
COUSIN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
(source: Delmarva Public Radio)
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