Innocent While Incarcerated

What have you done in life for the last eleven years?

Have you spent time with friends and loved ones, traveled on vacation, accomplished career goals, and enjoyed what most would consider a normal American life? Now, imagine missing all that. Imagine, instead, that you spent the last eleven years in prison, with twelve years to go, convicted of a crime you did not commit, and nobody, least of all the justice system, cared enough to listen. Justin Lunsford doesn't have to imagine. It happened to him. This is his diary.

"It is important to note in this regard that "actual innocence" means factual innocence, not mere legal insufficiency. In other words, the Government is not limited to the existing record to rebut any showing that a petitioner might make. Rather, on remand, the Government should be permitted to present

any admissible evidence of a petitioner's guilt even if that evidence was not presented during petitioner's plea colloquy and would not normally have been offered. In cases where the Government has forgone more serious charges in the course of plea-bargaining, petitioner's showing of actual innocence must also extend to those charges."

Bousley v. United States, 523 U.S. 614, 118 S. Ct. 1604, 140

L. Ed. 2d 828, 1998 U.S. LEXIS 3334, 66 U.S.L.W. 4346, 98

Cal. Daily Op. Service 3723, 98 Daily Journal DAR 5135, 1998

Colo. J. C.A.R. 2447, 11 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 532