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This Man Wonders How He Spent 14 Years In Prison For Crimes He Didn't Commit

Sarah Lim
/
NPR
Dallas exonerees Claude A. Simmons Jr., Thomas McGowan, Christopher Scott, Johnnie Lindsey and Richard Miles (far right) now work to get other wrongfully convicted prisoners freed.

Richard Miles remembers when his trial began in Dallas County District Court. It was 1995, and he was barely 20 years old. He thought for sure it’d be the day wrongful charges against him for murder and attempted murder would be thrown out. 

Instead, Miles went on to serve 14 years in prison for crimes he didn't commit. His story appears in Tested: How Twelve Wrongly Imprisoned Men Held Onto Hope. Miles told Think host Krys Boyd the most surreal part of the process was watching his accuser identify him in court.

You can hear Boyd's conversation with Miles, exoneree Billy Smith and author Dorothy Budd, who used to work as a prosecutor in the Dallas County District Attorney’s office and is now an Episcopal deacon, in today's podcast.

Lyndsay Knecht is assistant producer for Think.