Every once in a while, you read or hear
about someone who has been released from prison with the story that the
original incarceration was the result of a wrongful conviction. It’s easy to
feel sorry for the individual, even outrage at what they endured. Sometimes,
the stories tell us about the released person trying to obtain some kind of compensation
for the freedom the state wrongly took away. Almost always, there are snippets
of interviews with the newly freed appearing in our newspapers or on our
televisions.
But most often what we hear from the
released prisoner is selected and edited for its news (or entertainment) value.
Rarely do they get the opportunity to tell their stories – in their own words,
expressing their own feelings.
A newly published book by Courtney B. Lance
and Nikki D. Pope seeks to change that picture. Pruno, Ramen, and a Side of Hope: Stories of Surviving Wrongful
Conviction contains a selection of stories and poems written by the
prisoners themselves and their families. We hear directly from the victims of
wrongful convictions and, perhaps surprisingly, discover they are not always so
bitter as we might expect.
From the Forward by Prof. Cookie Ridolfi:
Pruno, Ramen, and a Side of Hope: Stories of Surviving Wrongful
Conviction is not like other books on wrongful
conviction. It’s not just about prison and politics, legal philosophy, or
jurisprudence, or about how the system went wrong or ways to fix it. It’s a
book that documents the everyday experiences of ordinary people pulled from
their lives, from everyone and everything they know, accused of unspeakable
crimes and sent to prison for longer than they can comprehend. It is also a
book about the stories of the people who do not first come to mind when you
think about wrongful conviction – those left behind. It describes the experiences
of the sister, the mother, the daughter, the cousin, and the friend who are
left holding the lifeline. It shares the fears of people saddled with the
stigma of a wrongfully convicted loved one, left without their parent or their
child, left with the feelings of helplessness in their search for justice and
it tells us where they found the strength to get them through this
incomprehensive ordeal and the resilience to carry on.
This is an
important book...
I’ll stop Professor Ridolfi there to say
that I agree entirely. This is an
important book. Although the stories are specific to the United States, the
truths and feelings revealed by the wrongfully convicted probably transcend
borders – at least for countries in the West.
[Before I forget: I know what ‘ramen’ is,
but I had to look up ‘pruno’. In case you don’t know either, it is prison wine.
It’s described as a concoction made from fermenting leftover fruit and vegetable
scraps. It is also described as vile and disgusting.]
The book contains two introductory
chapters. The first addresses the basics of wrongful conviction and how it can
come to pass. It also notes the incredible resilience of the victims
interviewed for the book.
The second chapter is written by Paige
Kaneb and explains the process of defending the innocent, from the lawyer’s
side of the table. Both chapters set the stage for understanding the cases that
follow.
Chapter 1 opens with a 1923 quote from US
judge Learned Hand:
Our procedure has
always been haunted by the ghost of the innocent man convicted. It is an unreal
dream.
In the US, at least, there is a dirty
little secret. There are men and women who have proved they were wrongfully
convicted, but are unable to prove actual innocence. And in the US legal
system, that appears to be beside the point. So Chapter 1 could have opened as
easily with a quote from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In criticizing
his Supreme Court colleagues for thinking ‘mere innocence’ gives sufficient grounds
to overturn a conviction, Scalia wrote:
This Court has never held
that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has
had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he
is “actually” innocent.
I’m a Canadian citizen and I’m comfortable
in saying that our courts occasionally make wrongful conviction errors and
sometimes take obtuse positions similar to Scalia’s. But there is at least the
saving grace here that a wrongful conviction will not lead to the death
penalty, which doesn’t exist in this country.
But, really, the stories of the victims –
including the loved ones of the incarcerated – are the most poignant aspects of
this project. These victims speak of how they adjusted to their circumstances –
both when incarcerated and eventually freed – of how they maintained sanity and
perspective, and how they managed to restrain the anger that must have been
bubbling away inside them.
These are honest voices, dealing with lives
wrongfully derailed. They are voices that must be heard if there is ever to be
any hope of reforming legal systems to prevent errors like these from occurring
again.
In my own practice, I long ago learned that
the legal system is highly complex, subject both to gross error and honourable
glory. But it is not really constructed with justice in mind. This book
examines the real stories of people who have experienced that latter point, far
more closely than they could ever have wished.
This book is recommended highly.
Pruno,
Ramen, and a Side of Hope: Stories of Surviving Wrongful Conviction (Post Hill Press, 2015) ISBN-10: 1618689258 ISBN-13: 978-1618689252 is available in
bookstores and online.
Paul Richard Harris is an Axis of Logic editor and columnist, based in Canada. He can be reached at paul@axisoflogic.com.
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