Herman Atkins' New Life
by TChris
Herman Atkins had never been to Lake Elsinore, but he was convicted of robbing and raping a woman he found working in a Lake Elsinore shoe store. His father was in the highway patrol, and he'd heard of wrongful convictions, but he never thought it would happen to him. Two women identified his photo, and his blood type was the same as that of the person whose semen was found on the victim's sweater. He served more than a decade in prison before DNA testing exonerated him.
Eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful conviction, said Gerald Uelmen, a law professor and executive director of the state Senate-created Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice.
What's Atkins doing now? After failing to find a job, Atkins went to college, then opened a vending machine business. Now he's working as a social worker and pursuing a graduate degree in psychology. Atkins started the LIFE Foundation, a program that assists the wrongfully convicted with basic necessities after their release. As TalkLeft reported, Atkins recently participated in the Faces of Wrongful Conviction conference.
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