Lee’s Summit native Josh Kezer: Struggles persist for exonerated inmates in Mo.
Posted by GSDispatch Editor in GSD Online, source: SE MISSOURIAN
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man who spent nearly 15 years in prison before he was cleared of murder said he and others wrongfully accused often struggle with an unshakable stigma and little help from the states that stole years from their lives.
Josh Kezer joined Darryl Burton, also cleared in a Missouri slaying, and Dennis Fritz, exonerated by DNA evidence in Oklahoma, to speak about their combined 50 years in prison and draw attention to wrongful convictions — and to what happens when the public spotlight dims.
A different reality often sets in when case publicity fades: depression, unresolved anger, societal shunning and continued struggles to return to polite society, they agreed. Many states don’t provide financial compensation or social service assistance.
“Nobody around me can really relate to me. Nobody,” Kezer, who was released last February, said ahead of a Midwest Innocence Project fundraiser Wednesday at the University of Missouri. “Some people see ‘prison,’ that’s all they see. They don’t see, ‘should have never been there.’ They don’t see that this guy just had his life brutalized.”
People also don’t realize that inmates are “subjected to violence and rape and molestation and lies and treachery,” he said.
Nearly 400 prison inmates nationwide have been exonerated through DNA testing or death row appeals, said Sean O’Brien, a University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor and Midwest Innocence Project board member.
A December 2009 report by the national Innocence Project showed that 40 percent of the more than 230 people cleared by DNA testing received no financial compensation or assistance with social services.
No compensation is provided in 23 states to those exonerated by DNA, and only 10 states provide services such as counseling or job training along with money, according to the study. And for those who did receive payment for time served, the average wait was three years.
Missouri provides $50 per day to former inmates exonerated by DNA evidence, but neither Burton nor Kezer could collect because they weren’t cleared by DNA. Kezer noted that people on parole are eligible for benefits that he can’t receive, such as job training.
“They have more benefits set up for guys who get out of prison who are guilty than who are innocent,” Kezer said. …
READ MORE: seMissourian.com: State News: Kezer: Struggles persist for exonerated inmates in Mo..
