Is he not justified to have a little emotion pouring out from his soul ? Do you think he is not a human being ? Do you believe he has had any pleasant days over the last 27 years ? How do you think you would feel if you were put in his situation ?
In 1983 an 18 year old Michael Anthony Green was charged and sentenced to prison for a rape that he did not commit. He was given a 75 year prison term for a crime which he did not commit. However the fact that he was innocent and the accusers faulty identifying him as the perpetrator did not save him from the prison term. The advancement of analyzing evidence through the development of DNA and the act of bringing a piece of evidence to the equation that was left out of the trial 27 years ago are the two things that allowed Michael Anthony Green to become a free man. This new found freedom was to become his reality initially on July 29, 2010. However he was denied his release to the free world due to the fact that his attorneys and the judge agreed that he was too emotional to attend his bond hearing. Now this brings me to the question of "How would you feel if you were wrongly accused of a crime that you did not commit and was imprisoned for 27 years ?" This man was 18 years old when he was incarcerated; barely an adult. He has missed a great portion of not only his life, but also the life of his loved ones, even missing the funeral of his mother. He missed all of these things due to the fact that he was incarcerated. 27 LONG years. Nobody can begin to imagine the things that he witnessed within those walls on a daily basis. The simple fact that he was sane enough to continue to fight for his justice and not resort to physical harm of himself or others, even suicide shows the fight and sanity that this man encompasses. Now these things factor into one source of his "anger" that he displayed vocally en route to his bond hearing. Now another factor is the fact that he stated prison guards tightened his handcuffs and shackles and threatened him on his way to the court room. The prison guards were treating this INNOCENT man as if he were a slave. There he was, proven innocent of a crime which he did not commit, yet he is still treated in the same manner in which a serial killer is treated; and he was disrespected on top of that. I fully believe his statement about how the guards treated him; he has no reason to lie about the treatment, he didn't lie about his innocence. In our society we have glorified the interactions between law officials and civilians. There have been many video reality shows which have shown motorist pulled over by police officers acting completely disrespectful and making threats to officers which have resulted in no type of penalties or offenses being levied against the motorist. Michael Anthony Green is in a totally different situation and is sequestered to another day in prison for expressing an emotion. This was not right and this will never be right. The day of freedom came on July 30, 2010 for Michael Anthony Green. He was officially released from prison on that day. Although he will never be able to get the time back that he lost as an innocent inmate, he is able to take a single step to normalcy that was taken from him 27 years ago.
