Exit to Freedom

by Johnson, Calvin C., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9780820327846
• ISBN10: 0820327840
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-12
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

"With God as my witness, I have been falsely accused of these crimes. I did not commit them. I'm an innocent man." In 1983 Calvin C. Johnson Jr. spoke these words to a judge who later handed down a life sentence for rape and related crimes. Johnson spent sixteen years behind bars before he was freed in 1999 after DNA testing conclusively ruled out the possibility of his guilt. Exit to Freedomis the unforgettable story of Johnson's unrelenting quest for justice against incredible odds and under circumstances that threatened to shred his dignity and hope. As Johnson recalls his trial and long journey toward freedom through five Georgia prisons, he also speaks candidly about everything from his middle-class childhood in Atlanta to the reasons he came to be a rape suspect to the steadfast support of his family. This is also a story of faith: how Johnson found it in prison and how, he believes, it played a role in his release. At the point in his prison term when Johnson thought that he had exhausted all avenues of appeal, DNA-based forensics began to make headlines. Eventually his case was taken up by the Innocence Project, the nonprofit legal clinic renowned for overturning convictions through DNA testing of evidence. Years of delay followed, but Johnson eventually became the sixty-first convict to be exonerated with the Innocence Project's help. His is the only first-person account of a wrongful conviction overturned through DNA testing. However disturbed readers may become by this portrait of a justice system undermined by its own cynicism, Johnson himself feels no bitterness toward his accusers. In a book that offers many lessons about freedom, that may be the most important one of all.

Author Biography

Calvin C. Johnson Jr. lives and works in the Atlanta area. He is on the board of the Georgia Innocence Project. Greg Hampikian, an associate professor of biology, works in the forensic science program at Boise State University. Barry Scheck is cofounder of the Innocence Project.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
A Note on the Text	xiii
Chronology	xv
The Swamp	1	(17)
The Years of Innocence	18	(19)
Innocence Lost	37	(13)
Paying the Price	50	(15)
Trapped	65	(15)
Jury of My Peers	80	(23)
Trial by Ordeal: The Verdict	103	(26)
A Last Chance for Justice	129	(5)
Care of the Body	134	(11)
River State Rebellion	145	(18)
The Board of Pardons and Paroles	163	(3)
Prison Industry	166	(17)
Sex Offenders Program	183	(6)
Anger	189	(6)
Joy	195	(10)
DNA, the Key to Freedom	205	(15)
The Innocence Project	220	(7)
Spiritual Growth	227	(7)
The Last Judgment	234	(11)
Free World	245	(17)
Epilogue	262	(7)
Afterword	269	(6)
Barry Scheck
DNA and the Science of Justice	275	(8)
Greg Hampikian
Coauthor's Notes and Acknowledgments	283
Greg Hampikian