In August we wrote of newly exonerated Wilton Dedge, freed from prison after serving 22 years for a rape he didn't commit. The St. Petersburg Times today reports on his case from beginning to end, and on his life since his release. Dedge just turned 43. He tries not to be bitter:

Dedge says he's trying not to focus on how wrong the justice system treated him. Like his parents, he believes it best to live in the moment.

"I don't want to have a bad attitude. It's there in the back of my mind, but I don't want to dwell on it right now. I'm having too much fun with new things. "I'm very, very disappointed. There's anger there. But I can't dwell on anger or I'll mess up my life. I'm trying to enjoy things instead of dwelling on anger."

His lawyers have enough bitterness for both of them. One of them, Milton Hirsch of Miami, calls the prosecutors' actions in Dedge's case, "moronic," "monstrous, shameful" and "Orwellian."

"When Wilton got out, he was pleased and forward-looking and capable of not dwelling on the bitterness of the past. But when it occurs to me that some prosecutors got up the next day and put on their pants and go to work and prosecute the next Wilton Dedge defendant with no consequences and no change in the criminal justice system, I can't get past that."