NYT: Vindicated by DNA, but a Lost Man on the Outside

[Omaha Steve]

I've been pro death sentence all my life. DNA freeing people after long periods in jail is changing my mind.

OS

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/us/25jeffrey.html?ex=1196658000&en=d8185bc7b2c32392&ei=5043&partner=EXCITE


James Estrin/The New York Times
Jeffrey Deskovic, left, on a subway to Greenwich Village. He was freed last year after 16 years in prison.

By FERNANDA SANTOS
Published: November 25, 2007

As a boy, Jeffrey Mark Deskovic could swim the length of a pool underwater without coming up for air. On sultry days at the Elmira state prison, where he spent most of his 16 years behind bars for a rape and murder he did not commit, Mr. Deskovic would close his eyes under a row of outdoor showers and imagine himself swimming.

For months after his release in September 2006, he had been yearning for a chance to dive in, to test his endurance, to feel that familiar sensation of pushing his body through the water, to get to the other side.

On a late-winter afternoon before giving a speech on wrongful convictions, Mr. Deskovic giggled mischievously as he stood at the edge of a hotel pool in Latham, N.Y., an Albany suburb, then leapt in abruptly, hugging his knees to produce a huge splash. In shorts and T-shirt, he sucked in some air and dived under, holding his breath. And holding it. He made his way across the pool in hurried, sideways strokes, and emerged gasping but smiling.

“Yes! Yes! I did it,” Mr. Deskovic yelled, his fists clenched above his head like a victorious boxer. “I still have it in me.”

A grown man with a full bushy beard, celebrating the simple accomplishment of an innocent youth. A tiny yet transcendent moment, one among many such moments of recaptured pleasures and newfound problems since his exoneration and release from prison last autumn.

Having walked out of the Westchester County Courthouse vindicated yet petrified of the unpredictable tomorrows ahead, Mr. Deskovic found that his first year on the outside was more turbulent than triumphant. Still trying to recover what was stolen from him, he is, at 34, a free man who has yet to feel truly free.

FULL story at link.

[sam sarrha]

1. the death penalty does not detour capital crime and has never been proved to be punishment.

the assertion that it is punishment is simply conjecture or opinion.

punishment is to cause to suffer, once dead there is no suffering, the dead body is unresponsive to any 'suffering', suffering is living in isolation for the rest of your life.

the death penalty is has never in any way ever been proved to be any sort of punishment, but it is a 'Blood Sacrifice' when politicians promise to kill prisoners in custody if elected to 'public service'.

[petersjo02]

2. What a painful story to read

Let's hope he has enough financial and social support and learns enough in college to truly find himself as time goes on. He is a victim of the system. We need more "innocence projects" to help people like Jeffrey Deskovic who have been wrongfully convicted have a fighting chance a life. Obviously prison did nothing to help him learn social skills or how to function in the world. It is simply warehousing.

Thanks, Steve, for all your thoughtful posts. It is time to end the death penalty in this country. Sick people like George Bush seem to get pleasure from consigning people to their deaths, as the death penalty cases in Texas when he was governor clearly showed. I think that's how he gets his sad, sorry rocks off by sending people to die. Afterwards he can beat on his puny concave chest and celebrate that he's still alive. He's a sick SOB. Now he gets his jollies sending young people to fight and die for nothing in Iraq. Sending people to their deaths makes his poor, inadequate self feel powerful, at least for a fleeting moment. There's never quite enough death to make it last for him, though.

Let us promise each other: never again.

[Trillo]

3. If you have empathy,

this story will likely bring tears.

[Nutmegger]

4. I cried

This is just disgusting what this man had to go through.

This man was probably raped in prison. How many people looked the other way because he was a "rapist"?

This man was allegadly groped and beaten by a guard. How many looked the other way because he was a "rapist"?

How many people like him behind prison walls suffering only to be jeered at?

It's sickening to see people automatically assume the accused is guilty, and how they think our justice system is infallible.

[skipos]

5. kick