The current story that really is injustice at it’s highest form.
Is about a man who was just found innocent after spending 38 years in prison.
I know I’m not joking over 3 decades of your life wasted in the joint on faked-up charges.
Let me bring you up to speed for those not informed about this tragic case.
Maurice Hastings, now 69, was convicted of the 1983 murder of Roberta Wydermyer, who was executed by a single gunshot to the head. Her body was found in the boot of her own vehicle.
He was also trialed on separate other charges for the attempted murder of the victim’s husband and his friend.
The first jury essentially deadlocked in regards to his official punishment being the death penalty.
So the second jury sentenced him to life in prison.
For years he persistently begged for his DNA to be cross-checked with the victim’s, but his attempts were futile.
And then due to the Conviction Integrity Unit finally taking his DNA samples last year they found out that he in fact wasn’t the killer due to it being no match.
To me what is astounding is the fact this man managed to keep his sanity, and still look like he was the one grateful for being proven innocent.
It made me question the integrity and the validity of the justice system in that period, and makes me feel that thank God modern science has advanced ,and injustices like this can be rectified.
But to me there isn’t any sense of ‘’true victory’’, the man essentially lost years that he can never get back, and the victim never got her case properly closed especially now her killer who was a serial predator is now deceased.
So who truly won.
I know people don’t like to admit this, but ethnic men especially of African-American descent got a raw deal those days even at times now , and the system worked against them rather than with them based on the simple fact of their skin.
I’ll be ignorant to say stuff like this don’t happen nowadays, and incidents like this only happened to black people frankly anyone regardless of race can be victim to shoddy policework, and a case like this really taints the image of law enforcement which is unfair on some instances, as I know a lot of law enforcement who would be ashamed of the involved department’s conduct , and are dedicated to the belief that everyone should be entitled to a fair hearing. I’m so relieved there are agencies that exist like Innocence Project who work tirelessly to exonerate wrongly convicted people regardless of their background.
I’m happy for Mr Maurice, and I don’t know much about his background, but I hope he can adjust to outside life, and that he can get some form of compensation from the state.
Maurice Hasting’s remaining relatives should keep a close eye on him, as trauma isn’t only about visibility the worst is internal.
I truly hope lessons will be learned from this case.
They say justice never sleeps, but people really slept on Mr Maurice when his cries and wails of innocence should have been ringing through their ears.