Posted on 05/06/2002 6:51:44 AM PDT by rw4site
I'M not a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. Or a politician. Or the head of any organization. I'm simply an average American. An average American who sat on death row.
My name is Ray Krone. I grew up in York, Pa., with a loving family and many friends. I played Little League baseball, went hiking with the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, attended Sunday school and sang in the church choir. I graduated in the top 10 percent of my high school class and did well on my college entrance exams. I decided to enlist in the Air Force, where I proudly attained the rank of sergeant. I served my country for seven years and was honorably discharged. My last assignment in the Air Force was in Arizona. I decided to stay there and joined the U.S. Postal Service.
I had a normal, good life. Nothing spectacular. Then, in an instant, my life was turned upside down. I was arrested for the stabbing murder of a local female bartender. At the time, and quite frankly, throughout the whole legal process, I truly felt I would be OK. After all, I was innocent. I reassured my family and friends I would be fine without a private attorney. How could the system fail an innocent man? I was deeply mistaken.
It was a bar I frequented, and I did know the bartender. Thanks to some bad forensic science, bite marks on the body were mistakenly said to have been made by my teeth.
I spent 10 years behind bars, including two years on death row, for a horrible crime I did not commit. It's difficult to describe what it is like to serve time on death row knowing you are innocent. All you know is that what seems like an awful nightmare is now reality, a reality beyond comprehension.
I still find it hard to believe that only four weeks ago I was sitting in my Arizona jail cell and today I am a free man. I owe my freedom to the extraordinary efforts of my family, friends and volunteer lawyers who fought tirelessly for me to obtain the DNA evidence from my case. The DNA proved my innocence -- and a match has now been been made with the DNA of another man.
What happened to me, unfortunately, has happened to many others. True, I have recently received notoriety -- if it can be called that -- for being the 100th American exonerated, but the fact is that being 100 or 99 or 98 doesn't really matter. What matters is that our death penalty system is broken. What happened to me can happen to anyone. And it doesn't have to be that way.
I've learned a lot in the last few weeks of freedom. And one thing I've learned is that there are steps our nation can take to improve our death penalty system. One important step would be for Congress to pass the Innocence Protection Act. This act would ensure that people who face the death penalty have greater access to the DNA from their cases. And it would also help states provide competent legal counsel in capital punishment cases.
Curiously enough, I still believe in our system of justice. But like any system, it can be improved. I'm not asking members of Congress to change their views on the death penalty. I have to believe, however, that even those who support the death penalty do not support putting innocent people to their death -- and leaving the guilty to roam free.
Ten years ago, I was an average Joe who liked delivering the mail. Today, I'm still an American with average dreams, but I've had a lot more time to think about things.
I can't afford to look back at what my life would have been like if I had obtained access to the DNA from my case years ago or if I had listened to my mother and hired a private attorney. For me, there is no sense in dwelling on what might have been. The time has come to look at what can be. And helping to make sure that what happened to me is less likely to happen to someone else is a much better use of my precious time.
Krone was sentenced to death in Arizona for the murder of a female bartender a decade ago. He was exonerated by DNA evidence last month. He wrote this article with the help of his attorney, Alan M. Simpson.
I could tell. The high handed petulant style put me off immediately.
DNA just as solidly proves the guilt of the guilty.
We no longer need to worry about making mistakes.
No.
I'd like to know more about Krone other than what he includes in his little autobiographical article posted above, before I classify him as apart from the scum.
What do you mean the system works? This poor guy spent 10 years in prison, he and his family have been irreparably harmed and financially devastated.
10 years of his life is gone & can never be replaced.
How many times has he been anally raped?
Please explain again just how the system worked?
Hope you were put off by high-handed government tactics that allow innocent men to spend years in jail. But with the WOD/WOT blurring the line between those who stand by the Constitution and those crushed by the Constitution, it would now seem that we may all shortly be classified criminals.
Mr. Krone might not be the ideal male-model brain surgeon, but he did come across as just another Joe sitting in a bar.
How did it work? Mr. Krone is alive.
The subject Mr. Krone decided to write about is the death penalty system not wrongful convictions.
Since Mr. Krone was not put to death the death penalty system works. And there is not a case anywhere where a person that could be proven innocent was put to death.
If Mr. Krone was writing about wrongful convictions then his points make mucho sense as do yours. But that's not his topic. What he and his attorney have written makes no arguements about the death penalty system.
Obviously not Ray Krone, he was locked in jail for a crime he did not commit, where were you?
And if it were not for the actions of his defense team, the prosecutors would have been more than content to watch him fry in the chair...
In other words the prosecution was not interested in justice...
Yep, the system looks fine from here.
You mean the same system that put an innocent man away for 10 years and would have killed him eventually? Yeah real healthy system we have there. . .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.