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Alan Newton’s first year of freedom
Posted: July 9, 2007 1:52 pm
When Alan Newton was exonerated a year ago after serving 22 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit, he “hit the ground running.” An article in yesterday’s New York Post visits Newton on the one year anniversary of his freedom, and he is smiling.
The determined Newton is intent on overcoming the indignity he's had to live with for 22 years. He's enrolled in school and will graduate with a B.S. in business administration from Medgar Evers College next June. Law school, he says, is next.More coverage: Freed after 20 years, he's rebuilding his life. (New York Daily News, 07/08/07)
He works as a youth mentor, goes on dates, surfs the Internet, and has just returned from a vacation in St. Croix, in the Caribbean, where he water-skied.
"Every day is like a celebration," Newton said. "I walk around with a smile on my face."
Read the full story here. (NY Post, 07/08/07)
Other exonerees celebrating anniversaries of their exonerations this week:
James Tillman, Connecticut. (1 Year; Exonerated 7/11/06)
Lafonso Rollins, Illinois (3 Years, Exonerated 7/12/04)
Tags: Alan Newton, Lafonso Rollins, James Tillman
NYC man marks second exoneration anniversary as a college grad
Posted: July 7, 2008 3:18 pm
Innocence Project client Alan Newton spent over a decade searching for the physical evidence from his case. When it was finally found— right where it was supposed to be all along — Newton had spent 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was finally exonerated two years ago yesterday.
Thanks to the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and the support of Moët Hennessy USA, Newton is able to celebrate the second anniversary of his exoneration as a college graduate. He graduated with honors from Medgar Evers College with a degree in Business this June. Now, he plans on going to law school to give back to his community.
Watch a four-minute interview with Newton on the Innocence Project’s YouTube page.
Newton’s case is among many where adequate preservation of evidence could have freed an innocent person much earlier – if at all. To date, 27 states across the country have no laws or statues requiring evidence preservation — including New York, Newton’s home state. Even states that have statutes are not without their problems. Some states require preservation only for certain crimes. Others do nothing to sanction those responsible for destroying or discarding evidence.
Learn more about evidence preservation here.
Other exoneration anniversaries this week:
Wednesday: Keith Brown, North Carolina (Served 4 years, Exonerated 7/09/99)
Byron Halsey, New Jersey (Served 19 years, Exonerated 7/09/07)
Friday: James C. Tillman, Connecticut (Served 16.5 years, Exonerated 7/11/06)
Saturday: Lafonso Rollins, Illinois (Served 10 years, Exonerated 7/12/04)
Tags: Keith Brown, Alan Newton, Lafonso Rollins, James Tillman
Five Years After Exoneration, Lafonso Rollins is Giving Back
Posted: July 20, 2009 2:26 pm
Last week, Lafonso Rollins marked the anniversary of the day he walked out of an Illinois prison after serving 11 years for a rape he did not commit. Rollins was a 17-year-old special education student in the ninth grade when he was arrested, and he was convicted based largely on a false confession he had signed, but did not write. In 2004, DNA testing was finally obtained and conclusively proved Rollins’s innocence and he was released.
Rollins spoke to ABC7 Chicago about how his false confession was coerced by police. He said: “They came on hitting on me. They kept told me they were going to wring me out to dry if I didn't tell the truth… I was scared to death.” In addition to this alleged improper treatment by police, Rollins’ case was also plagued by improper forensic analysis and reporting.
In early 2006, Rollins filed a lawsuit against the City of Chicago for violating his civil rights. He eventually settled for $9 million, and the city pledged to investigate whether the police officers and crime lab who handled his case had engaged in wrongdoing. Rollins said his mission now is to use his freedom to help others.
“This is not my lottery ticket or anything,” he said. “Keep in mind, the most important thing right now is for everybody to focus on that, OK, I made it, I'm free, you know what I'm saying? It's over with. Make sure the next guy doesn't go through this heat."
Since then, Rollins has used portions of his settlement money to help free the innocent and prevent wrongful convictions. He started a foundation called Right the Wrong Complications. In one of his first donations, Rollins gave $10,000 to benefit Northern Illinois University Law School’s Innocence Project, which had provided him pro bono legal services during his incarceration.
More recently, Rollins donated another $10,000 to the rebuilding fund of a Chicago church after he saw it burn down on television. He cited his late father, a pastor who had died during his incarnation. "My father passed, and here is a church that I can help out and here this one is," said Rollins. "I thought this would be my chance to help out.”
Other Exoneration Anniversaries:
Steven Linscott, Illinois (Served 3 Years, Exonerated 7/16/92)
Steven Toney, Missouri (Served 13 Years, Exonerated 7/16/96
Joe Jones, Kansas (Served 6.5 Years, Exonerated 7/17/92)
Perry Mitchell, South Carolina (Served 14.5 Years, Exonerated 7/20/98)
Tags: Lafonso Rollins, Exoneree Compensation, Life After Exoneration