Two and a half years ago, George Bell was officially exonerated of murder, 24 years after entering prison. Not long after, New York City paid George Bell $17.5 million to settle the ensuing wrongful conviction suit. And now George Bell is living very well. Some people understand that. Other people don’t. The truth is, only one person needs to understand it, and that’s George Bell. But in this remarkable profile, Ryan D’Agostino does a hell of a job helping the rest of it understand it too.
George doesn’t need that either—disdain. He doesn’t need your pity or your doubt, he doesn’t need your judgment, and he didn’t need all that damn money. He’ll take it—hell yeah, he’ll take it. But what he needs? From you and me and the cops and the prison guards and the old guy on the corner and his family and everyone?
He needs what we all need, but especially him. He needs you to try to understand something that in your world is incomprehensible.
He needs you, just for a few minutes, to listen.
More picks about exoneration
The Human Cost of Jeff Landry’s Drive to Resume Executions
“Chris Duncan’s death sentence—built on the testimony of two discredited doctors—illustrates just how faulty the system can be.”
When Innocence Isn’t Enough
Christopher Dunn has been in prison for over 30 years for a murder in St. Louis that he and others say he didn’t commit. Even though new evidence has emerged in favor of Dunn, the state of Missouri says he must stay in prison — because he wasn’t sentenced to death. He continued, “This Court does…
‘It’s the Most Outrageous Thing I’ve Ever Seen. It Makes No Sense.’
“DNA evidence proved Lydell Grant’s innocence. So why won’t the state’s highest criminal court exonerate him?”
