"Mr. Bain. I sign your order now. You are a free man. Congratulations. "
I took 35 years to James Bath to hear a judge admitted that he was innocent, 35 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. The scene took place Thursday in Bartow, Florida.
The man who has just been released today 54. When he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1974 for kidnapping and rape of a boy, he was 19. Since then, James Bain had consistently maintained his innocence. The victim, aged 9, thought to recognize the photos displayed by the police.
On his release, James Bain said smilingly that he felt "no bitterness" and thought primarily to "reconsider his mother he called on the phone. It was the first time he used a cell phone.
It is an association of lawyers, The Innocence Project, who took up his case and worked for his release. This association is fighting to get DNA testing to prisoners, to ascertain their guilt.
According to The Innocence Project, James Bain is the 248th person exonerated through DNA testing in the United States. Of all these, he is one who has spent the most time in prison.
The work of the association in 2009 has enabled the release of 27 prisoners who had suffered imprisonment for 15 years on average for crimes they did not commit. "Their cases reveal serious flaws in the criminal justice system," reads the association on its website.
The Innocence Project calls including reform of the identification by the eyewitnesses. "This is the main cause of conviction of innocent people," said one official of the association.
Visiting Paris in October 2007, one of the leaders of the association, Greg Hampikian was spent Rue89, after going to visit a laboratory for DNA analysis of the national gendarmerie. We had confided his desire to mount an Innocence Project in France:
"People here seem surprised, but like everywhere, there must also be innocent in prison"