PENALTY

Finally, on June 28, 1993, I walked out of the Maryland State Penitentiary
a free man.
Even today, many exonerees find it hard to shake the stigma after
they are released from prison. At the time of my DNA exoneration,
the technology was still new and the public wasn’t sure if I could
be trusted. When I returned to Cambridge, Maryland, I had trouble
getting a job and I was harassed by my neighbours.
It didn’t help that the prosecutor, Ann Brobst, would not admit the
state’s mistake. Even when I was released based on clear scientific
evidence, Brodst stated, “If we had the DNA evidence in 1984, Mr.
Bloodsworth would not have been prosecuted, but we are not prepared
to say he is innocent.”
Unfortunately, it would take 10 years for Dawn’s true killer to be identified.
I received a phone call from Brobst in September 2003 when
the state of Maryland finally found a match in the DNA database.
The murderer was identified as Kimberley Shay Ruffner. Not only
was his name given in a tip at the time of the original investigation,
but Ruffner was a suspect in rapes in the Fells Point neighbourhood
of Baltimore. He was serving time for attempted rape when the DNA
match was concluded years later.
As fate would have it, Ruffner had been sleeping in the cell below
me in the Maryland Penitentiary all these years. We had lifted weights
together. I gave him library books. He never said a word in all that time.
When I was exonerated, the state of Maryland paid me $300,000 for
lost income during the time I was wrongfully imprisoned. But I lost
so much more than money in those eight years that I will never get
back. While I grieve this loss, I am no longer angry, and for the past
decade of my life, I have simply wanted to do something to ensure
that no-one else suffers what I did. After all, if it can happen to me, it
can happen to anyone.
as the Innocence Protection Act of 2003, which includes the Kirk
Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing program, providing federal
funds to states for DNA testing for prisoners who claim their
innocence. I have become one of many exonerees who, with the
help of great advocacy organizations like Witness to Innocence, travel
around the country to share our cautionary tales.
When I tell young students my story, they always say the same thing:
I can’t believe this could happen in America.
While people are concerned by the rate of wrongful conviction in
the United States, sometimes it takes a personal story to put a real face
to the issue. Now, I respectfully submit my story to you. This story is
why I believe that the time is overdue for the United States to follow
the lead of our partners in the international community and abolish
the death penalty once and for all.
Make no mistake about it. I am not here because the system worked. I
am here because a series of miracles led to my exoneration. Not every
person wrongfully convicted of a capital crime is as blessed. If we kill
one innocent man, it’s one too many.
I certainly understand the anger and desire for justice in capital cases.
When I speak at death penalty events, I sometimes carry with me the
picture of the victim Dawn Hamilton. Her death was so horrific that
it still moves me to tears. But the great US Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall one said, “The measure of a country’s greatness
is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis.” Even in the midst
of fear and anger, a great country must ensure that its criminal justice
system is effective and accurate. If a great country cannot ensure that
it won’t kill an innocent citizen, it shouldn’t kill at all.
For these reasons, I strongly believe that abolishing the death penalty
is a necessary step for the integrity of the criminal justice system in
the United States and other nations.
This principle guides my work today. During my years of freedom, I
have fought for wrongfully convicted people all over the United States
and lobbied for reforms to the American criminal justice system, such
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