JUSTICE & INJUSTICE:
Hidden Evidence?
Rush To Judgement?
Wrongful Convictions
What would it be like to spend 25 years in prison for something you didn’t do?
Dr. Nicky Ali Jackson, Ph.D., has spent much of her career asking that question—and, more importantly, helping society confront the damage caused when the criminal justice system gets it wrong.
A professor of criminal justice at Purdue University Northwest, Jackson studies wrongful convictions, inequality, victimization, and the challenges people face after incarceration. Through the Center for Justice and Exoneration Network (CJEN) at Purdue, she brings attention to cases involving people who appear to have been wrongly imprisoned while also advocating for exonerees, who are trying to rebuild their lives. And, recently, she brought the issue to an event to introduce some people who have been wrongfully convicted, the process of exoneration, and how justice got it wrong.
Timmy Donald spoke at the event. He spent more than 20 years in prison for murder and armed robbery before his convictions were vacated and the charges dismissed. After his release, Jackson met him and recognized that legal freedom was only the first step. Donald still had to confront the emotional, financial, and practical consequences of losing much of his adult life to wrongful incarceration and inspired Jackson to help create the Willie T. Donald Exoneration Advisory Coalition, giving him an opportunity to advocate for other exonerees. Prison gates might be opened, but it does not return lost years. These people often leave prison without a place to live, access to transportation, medical care, employment, or counseling.
Currently, Jackson’s organization is working to exonerate Chris Bynum, who has been in prison for 26 years of a 300-year sentence ordered by a judge in northwestern Indiana. He was charged with the murder of five people. But allegations have surfaced that during questioning, he was threatened, mistreated, and coerced into a confession. Then there are witnesses who say they were pushed to say Chris was at the scene, and prosecutors did not bother to test the crime scene DNA—until now, 20 years later. Not surprisingly, they have found that the DNA is not a match to Chris, and investigators have found hard evidence that Chris was elsewhere when the murders occurred. The fact was known but was never introduced in court. And yet, he’s still incarcerated.
The wheels of justice (and injustice) move slowly. Dr. Jackson continues to work on Chris' behalf as she demonstrates that justice involves more than correcting a verdict. It requires listening to the wrongfully imprisoned, helping them recover, and changing the systems that allow injustice to happen.
Nancy
