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Johnny Lee Wilson was never a troublemaker in school. He had no history of violence. But according to mental disability professionals in Missouri, Johnny Lee Wilson functions at the lowest one percentile of the U.S. population. Wilson’s mental retardation was the principal reason he spent nine years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.  | | Wilson hugs his mother after being pardoned by Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan and release from prison on Sept. 29th 1995. | | Photo: The Kansas City Star |
In April 1986, the body of Pauline Martz was found inside her burned home in Aurora, Missouri. She had been beaten, bound and gagged; her home was ransacked. Town resident Gary Wall told authorities that Wilson had told him he knew about the crime. Five days later, local police arrested Wilson and began to interrogate him. |
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As the pace of DNA exonerations has grown across the country in recent years, wrongful convictions have revealed disturbing fissures and trends in our criminal justice system. Together, these cases show us how the criminal justice system is broken – and how urgently it needs to be fixed.
We should learn from the system’s failures. In each case where DNA has proven innocence beyond doubt, an overlapping array of causes has emerged – from mistakes to misconduct to factors of race and class. |
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