美国国家公共电台 NPR An Exoneree Shares His Story Of Wrongful Conviction In 'Anatomy Of Innocence'

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

In 2007, after decades insisting he was innocent, Jerry Miller 1 of Chicago was finally vindicated 2.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN: There aren't too many people happier today than Jerry Miller. Hugs abound 3.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN: After 25 years in prison for a kidnapping, rape 5 and robbery that he did not commit, Jerry Miller is now free, his conviction removed from the record based on DNA 4 testing that proves his innocence 6.

SHAPIRO: Jerry Miller was the 200th American wrongly convicted to be cleared by DNA evidence. The local ABC station covered his official exoneration 7, including this apology from Assistant State Attorney Robert Milan.

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ROBERT MILAN: On behalf of the men and women of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, I would like to express my deepest regrets to Mr. Miller and wish him nothing but the best in his future life.

SHAPIRO: Jerry Miller's story is part of a new book called "Anatomy 8 Of Innocence." It fleshes out personal stories of false convictions with a twist. In each chapter, a famous crime writer tells the story of a real-life exoneree. Miller was paired with John Mankiewicz, an executive producer of the Netflix show "House Of Cards." Miller told me he hoped his chapter of this book would tell the much more complex story behind that attention-grabbing exoneration day at the courthouse.

JERRY MILLER: As my aunt - my famous aunt - would say - she had a lot of sayings - you know, I felt that he would get down to nitty gritty.

SHAPIRO: Writer John Mankowitz told me at first he felt nervous about talking to Jerry.

JOHN MANKIEWICZ: I mean, I just couldn't imagine someone stealing 26 years of your life. And how would you react to that? It's such an overwhelming set of circumstances.

SHAPIRO: And it wasn't only the 26 years that Jerry Miller spent behind bars. After he served his time, before being exonerated 9, Miller was forced to register as a sex offender 10. He missed nieces' and nephews' birthday parties because he was not allowed to be around children. He had to wear an ankle bracelet 11 and keep to a 9 p.m. curfew. Jerry Miller and John Mankiewicz joined me to talk about what it was like to work on this story together. The chapter describes a man free from bitterness, so I started off asking Jerry how he managed to stay hopeful during the long ordeal 12 before he cleared his name.

MILLER: I had a life to live, so I had to choose how I wanted to live it. You know, what comes from a man who is negative and basically is mad at the world because he was wronged? You just have to, you know, accept what is happening and grow from it, you know. To just walk around angry - I mean, that's a waste of the rest of your life.

SHAPIRO: John, you've written for a lot of film and TV. How was this writing experience different?

MANKIEWICZ: I felt a big responsibility to tell the story right. And, in fact, I think we even talked about it. I really only cared about at a very small audience of one - that I cared about thinking - not liking 13 it - but thinking this - that I'd got it - gotten right.

SHAPIRO: That audience of one being Jerry, the person whose story you're telling.

MANKIEWICZ: Yeah, because so many other people had been telling lies about him, you know, over a period of 26 years - you know, what happened to him. And I wanted to get it right for him. And, by the way, you're writing "House Of Cards?" What's the - worst thing that can happen is it's a bad show, you know. You know, it's TV. You know, the stakes - I felt the stakes were a little higher.

SHAPIRO: So, Jerry, you've heard how nervous John was to write your story - that he was basically doing this for an audience of one, that the stakes felt higher than with the hit TV show that he's an executive producer of. What's the verdict?

MILLER: I see why they have John to write their stories.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

MILLER: You know, I mean, he's a good writer. I call - today, I call him the wordsmith. He convinced me that he was going to write a story. He was going to write a story about me, and he was going to tell the truth. And he was going to try to tell it as I would tell it through him.

MANKIEWICZ: Because, if you think about it, every exoneree - every single one who's actually innocent - no one has believed them. And no one has been interested in hearing what the real story was until they're exonerated. You know, there's just another man or woman in jail saying, I'm innocent. I didn't do it. How am I going to prove it? And there are people who give up - right? - even innocent people in jail.

MILLER: Yeah. I mean, just think - what if I gave up, you know? It was not a given that I would not give up, but, you know, hope comes and goes. It doesn't - it's not a - You have to maintain it, but it comes and goes. Believe me. Every day you wake up is not with purpose.

MANKIEWICZ: Well, and also while we were doing this - writing the story which I overreported, you know, by a factor of 10...

SHAPIRO: Really.

MANKIEWICZ: ...Because I was so nervous. Oh, I've talked to people (laughter). I haven't even told you who I've talked to.

MILLER: Yeah (laughter).

MANKIEWICZ: I wanted to get it right. And I had notebooks full of stuff and, you know, 15 computer files.

SHAPIRO: It sounds like you were a little obsessive 14 about this.

MANKIEWICZ: Well, I really - I really wanted to get it right.

SHAPIRO: Just take me to the day you were exonerated and how it felt in that moment when it was official.

MILLER: It was - you know, even now I kind of get a little shook because I actually knew what was getting ready to take place. I was getting ready to get my life back. And, you know, my family - we basically had a caravan 15. We rode out, and, you know, everybody was dressed sharp.

MANKIEWICZ: I mean, you can look at pictures from that day, and you've never seen a smile like this, Ari.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

MANKIEWICZ: Jerry smiled so much - I think you told me it hurt.

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MILLER: Yeah, it did.

MANKIEWICZ: Yeah.

MILLER: You know, it got even better because when they called me up before the judge, you know, I passed through people who was waiting to have their cases heard or whatever. They saw what was taking place, and everybody started clapping.

SHAPIRO: What do you want this book - this retelling of these stories of exoneration and innocence - what do you want it to accomplish?

MILLER: I mean, I've heard stories even worse than mine, but they're interesting stories about reality. You know, it's not fantasy. It's nothing made up. These are real people who suffer real pain, who has to find their way back to being a productive citizen, you know. And they need support for people not to hear the story. I mean, they would be missing out on the triumphs of human beings and how they're able to struggle hard enough to, you know, regain 16 their life back and clear their family's name. They're important stories that need to be told.

MANKIEWICZ: I mean, in a way, it's, you know, life after innocence. It's a - part of it is, you know, a how-to book by example, you know? There are people who - I mean, you've told me you knew people who confessed just to get it over with. Yeah.

MILLER: Right. People don't - see, they don't they don't know the dynamic of it. They don't know what it takes to accomplish what exonerees do.

MANKIEWICZ: You see the stories in the paper. You see it and you feel like - wrongly accused man gets out of jail after 20, 25 years on DNA evidence. This book, for me, was an attempt to go deeper than that.

SHAPIRO: Jerry Miller and John Mankiewicz, thank you both for sharing this story with us.

MANKIEWICZ: Well, thank you.

MILLER: Thank you. Thank you for having us.

SHAPIRO: Jerry Miller reached a settlement with the city of Chicago after his exoneration. He now lives in Virginia, where he's studying computer programming. John Mankiewicz is an executive producer of "House Of Cards." The book is called "Anatomy Of Innocence: Testimonies 17 Of The Wrongly Convicted."

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