The Christian Science Monitor today profiles Christopher Ochoa, one of the growing number of convicted felons in America who has been exonerated by DNA evidence. Many of the 180 men and women have had difficulty regaining a place in society, but Ochoa is success story. Last month he became only the second exoneree in US history to graduate from law school. He now heads out to look for a job in a field–criminal justice–that let him down.
Ochoa was convicted in Texas for the 1988 rape and murder of a restaurant manager. He said he was coerced into confessing during a two-day interrogation in which police threatened him with the death penalty. After more than a decade behind bars–and a few years after the man who actually committed the crime admitted to it–Ochoa wrote the Wisconsin Innocence Project, which investigates wrongful convictions. New DNA tests were conducted, and Ochoa walked out of prison two years later in 2001.
Link: http://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2006/0615/p20s01-lign.html