Exonerated death row inmate: 'Took 'em long enough'

[Mr. Ected]

22 years on Tennessee's death row. What price should society pay for freedom denied? Should public policy demand compensation for inmates later exonerated by DNA evidence? I shudder to think what this innocent man, and others like him, endured; caged, deprived and scorned.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/13/tennessee.exonerated/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Former death row inmate Paul House woke to laughter and cries of joy from his mother on Tuesday, the day he learned he was a free man.

"You've been exonerated," his mother, Joyce House, told him, shaking him awake.

"Took 'em long enough," he replied, after taking a moment to process the information.

House, 47, spent 22 years on Tennessee death row for the rape and murder of his neighbor, Carolyn Muncey, in 1985. He left prison last year and was placed under house arrest after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that new DNA evidence could have led a jury to acquit him.

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"They say the wheels of justice turn mighty slow, but for them to turn this slow is ridiculous," she said.

Her son also remains unimpressed with the justice system.

"I never had any real feelings about the justice system until these idiots got a hold of me, and now it's very low," he said. "I can tell you truthfully that there's nothing I miss about prison."

[Orrex]

1. If we had a more aggressive death penalty, we wouldn't have this problem