![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/images\/billdillon_sm.jpg?resize=275%2C183&ssl=1\" "\\"Bill")
The name of the fellow over there at the left is William (Bill) Dillon. At the time this picture was taken, in November, 2008, Dillon was 49 years old.<\/p>\nThe name of the fellow over there at the left is William (Bill) Dillon. At the time this picture was taken, in November, 2008, Dillon was 49 years old.<\/p>\n
An unremarkable photo, really. A man in middle age, playing a guitar in what appears to be a kitchen of a suburban house or apartment somewhere.<\/p>\n
But the circumstances surrounding that photo: remarkable indeed.<\/p>\n
Until earlier on the day when that picture was taken, Bill Dillon had been imprisoned by the State of Florida for 27 years. His sentence, for the crime of murder in the first degree, had been life imprisonment. <\/em><\/p>\n Tsk, tsk<\/em>, you may think. Once again, the bleeding-heart criminal justice system sets a murderer free to kill again<\/em>. Perhaps you wonder how the people around Dillon could possibly seem so relaxed. They must be accomplices<\/em>, you imagine.<\/p>\n Er, no.<\/p>\n For it turns out that Dillon did not commit — could not<\/em> have committed — the crime for which he was convicted and imprisoned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The facts of the State’s case against Dillon, and of his eventual exoneration, are sketched in<\/a> at the Web site for the Innocence Project of Florida (IPF). In retrospect, you could be forgiven your surprise — at the least — that he ever ended up in court in the first place, let alone in prison, considering:<\/p>\n Now, I know, one naturally tends to believe the testimony of eyewitnesses. “I saw it with my own eyes!” must rank among the two or three most common ways in which we testify to just about any truth, criminal or otherwise.<\/p>\n But while seeing may be believing, it’s believing<\/em> which often leads us to see<\/em> in the first place. Of the over 220 cases nationwide in which DNA evidence has overturned convictions for serious crimes, eyewitness misidentification was involved in over 80%. This has been true even when the very victim of the crime — how much more first-hand can you get? — singles out the “criminal” in a lineup or a rogues’ gallery of photos. (See, for instance, last night’s 60 Minutes<\/em> program<\/a>.)<\/p>\n As for mistakes or outright “misbehavior” by the authorities, of course, it’s easy to want to discount if not forgive them. We make mistakes in our jobs. We cut corners. It must happen with police and prosecutors too.<\/p>\n Sure it must. (And if I were the victim of a crime, you better believe I’d call the police.)<\/p>\n But gad<\/em>. Mistakes which deprive someone else of nearly three decades of freedom? If Bill Dillon were your brother, your son, your second cousin twice removed, your neighbor — if Bill Dillon were you<\/em> — would you so easily shrug and say, Well, these things happen…<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n