Every little bit counts

One thing you learn in this business: Never give up...never let up!

As we review the January activity log for HFP, we are pleased to report three paroles. In each case, we did our little part. Maybe it was just a letter to the Parole Board. But through experience we have found that every avenue must be pursued.

We have no idea whether we can claim any credit at all for these three, but thank God they happened.

Jeff received a parole after serving 5 years of a 4-10 sentence. He's a free man today.

Jim finally was granted a compassionate release. He's been in only two years, but he's dying of cancer and the Parole Board had been stubbornly resisting a request to let him live out his remaining days with loved ones.

And Norman was granted a parole in New York state. True, HFP focuses only on Michigan cases, but this one dates back to the time when we were known as INNOCENT and we were considering wrongful conviction cases all over the country. We learned of Norman's plight after another New York inmate wrote to us to say Norman was innocent, and the reason he knew that was because this inmate had actually committed the crime! We have done our little part to this day to get his story before the people, with no big effect. To the disgrace of the system, Norman is getting a parole, but he still has not been exonerated.

And that's the way it is here. It's like climbing the Sleeping Bear sand dune...two steps ahead, and then one step backward.

But it's what we do. Thanks be to God for these glimpses of sunlight in January.

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