Ever since I read Papillon, the story of a French thief sent to an island prison, I've saved a particular kind of compassion for people sentenced to live behind bars. Particularly when so many stories are of continuing injustice, of the wrongly accused or the overly punished. Such is the story of David Wong.
In a nutshell, David Wong was sentenced for 25 years to life for a murder that he did not commit. The judge, on Dec. 21, 2004, evacuated the charges. He was 24 when he entered prison, he is now 41.
But David Wong is not free to live his life now, free to make up for lost years by splashing through water parks and gorging on dim sum and waking up whenever he damn well feels like it and fretting about his career options like the rest of us, because the U.S. government wants to deport him. That's what happens when they falsely sentence you and you spend 17 years of your life in prison overalls bathed in the smells of institutional restriction because of other people's mistakes and malice. Apparently that makes you unfit to live in this country any more.
Find out more about his story, and sign a petition opposing his deportation at freedavidwong.org.
Posted by jennifer at January 5, 2005 7:25 AM
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