Criminal Justice
Exonerated But Still Struggling
Posted Oct 22, 2007, 09:52 am CST
By Martha Neil
Twenty years after he was convicted of rape based on an inaccurate witness identification, Marcus Lyons has finally been cleared by DNA evidence.
His conviction has been dismissed by the DuPage County state's attorney, and his name will soon be expunged from a database of convicted sex offenders, reports the Chicago Tribune. However, Lyons, who has been battling to clear his name throughout the past two decades and even carried a huge wooden cross to the county courthouse at one point in an attempt to do so (he got another conviction, for disturbing the peace, and was fined $100), is still struggling to regain some semblance of the life he left behind when he went to prison for three years.
"You never forget the sound of a cell door closing on you," says Lyons. "It wakes you up at night, and you wonder if this is all still just a bad dream."