Friday, December 18, 2009

James Bain...The Lost 35 Years

James Bain spent 35 years in prison for a crime he never committed. DNA evidence has proven his innocence and jailers reluctantly released him, at age 54, to go on with the rest of his life.

He was only 19 when a young, traumatized rape victim picked out his picture from a group of 5 shown to him. That was the evidence that stole 35 years out of an innocent man's life.

DNA science has been available for at least 20 years of those 35 and James Bain has been requesting it in order to reopen his case but he was refused until just lately. Why wouldn't the use of DNA be automatically used in a case like this?

Lawmakers don't like to be proven wrong. It's as simple as that.

Thirty five years lost. It's difficult to even imagine how that 19 year old boy felt as he spent his youth and then middle age in a prison. Prison inmates have a special hatred for child molesters so his prison time must have been misery. James looks much older than his 54 years, a testament to the hard years.

There's no way he can ever be compensated for what he lost but, by keeping his story alive, it can maybe help prevent the same tragedy from happening to another person.

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