The unpredictable journey.

• Author: Thompson, Jennifer
• Position: Revealing the Impact & Aftermath of Miscarriages of Justice

It was the summer of 2000. I had just returned from the mountains of North Carolina where I tearfully said goodbye to my triplets. They would spend the next seven days camping, swimming, playing, and singing at camp. While I knew I would miss them terribly, my mind raced to how I would use all of the uninterrupted hours to tackle projects that had been left undone for the last ten years. The silence and calm, however, lasted a mere day as a phone call from Texas would not only change that week but also the rest of my life.

"Jennifer, my name is Dick Burr. I am a lawyer who is representing a death row inmate here in Texas. Gary Graham has been on the row here for nineteen years and is scheduled to die by lethal injection in twenty-two days. I wanted to find out if we could fly you here for a press conference so you could tell your story?"

Who was this man, I thought? And why in the world would anyone want to hear me at a press conference? What do I care about some death row inmate in Texas? I certainly did not want to speak out for some murderer. "Mr. Burr, you should probably know that I support the death penalty. This is the United States of America and there is no way that we could possibly execute an innocent person. I do not want to advocate for some guilty guy!" I said.

Mr. Burr promptly told me he understood, but could he please overnight me the information on the case. After reading it, perhaps I might reconsider. With doubt in my mind and against my better judgment, I told him I would read it and get back to him. Within forty-eight hours, I found myself in Houston, Texas.

As one never to pass up a free meal, I was invited to meet downstairs for dinner. I found myself at a table of fifteen people, none of whom I knew. As the group began ordering beverages, I grew increasingly nervous. Rob Warden, who sat to my left, stood up and introduced himself as the co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions out of Chicago. "Thank you all for coming," he said. "I would like each of you to stand and tell a little about who you are and why you are here."

The large barrel-chested man directly across from me went first. "My name is Kirk Bloodsworth. I am an ex-marine from Cambridge, Maryland. I spent eight years, eleven months, and nineteen days in prison for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old little girl. Three of those years I sat on death row waiting to be gassed to death. The only evidence against me was eyewitness identification. DNA...