Imagine This

Imagine if you can a man and a woman, deep in love. Let us give the man and woman names. Their names are Frank & Marie. Frank met Marie when she was young. Marie loved Frank with a love that was very intense. As with most couples Frank and Marie had children. Marie had the typical role of being the housewife, whereas Frank became the breadwinner of the family.

As the family was on a journey to another part of the country, they grew tired. Being a family that did not have a lot of money to spend, they chose to stop at a roadside rest stop for the night. Along with the family on the journey was another man who was a so-called friend. Let us name the man Joseph. The sun was beginning to set on the horizon. Marie tended to her children in the back seat of the car, as Frank and Joseph discussed the day and what they had seen during their journey.

Night fell upon the group. Everyone drifted off to sleep. Frank and Joseph were in the front seat. Marie and the children were in the back seat. In the early morning hours while the darkness was still upon them, Frank and the others awoke to a sight, which indeed would startle almost any human being. There was a bright light being shined in their eyes, which emanated from a large flashlight being held by a highway patrolman. The patrolman was on duty at the time. He had been on the lookout for a car, which happened to appear like the car that the group were in. One thing led to another and all of a sudden, action was being taken which would change the lives of all the people involved forever. The patrolman ordered the men out of the car. For some reason Joseph grabbed the patrolman's gun, and shot the man to death. In the blink of an eye, one mans life was lost, and the lives of many were thrust into a cycle that would doom all the parties involved.

Time passes on. We find Frank and Joseph along with Marie and the children being arrested by another group of patrolmen. Frank is placed along with Joseph in handcuffs and then placed in the back seat of one of the cruisers on the scene. Marie is also placed in handcuffs and placed in the back seat of another cruiser. The children are separated from their parents. Marie screams "Don't take my babies away."

Time passes on. Frank finds himself in a courtroom being tried for capital murder of the patrolman who was shot and killed. Frank is innocent of the crime of which he is charged with. Many witnesses come forward and testify for the state, including Joseph, the actual shooter in the case. Joseph testifies that Frank had killed the patrolman, by reversing the rolls that each man played in the scenario. Frank is tried, convicted and sentenced to death. Joseph is charged with murder also, and received a life sentence. Marie was also tried for capital murder. Oddly enough Marie never left the back seat of the car, the night that the patrolman was shot. However, as fate would have it, she too found that she had been sentenced to death. The family was completely separated.

Time passes on. After numerous appeals Frank was executed in the electric chair. The execution did not go as planned. The chair malfunctioned, and in doing so flames shot out from the mask which covered Frank's head. Frank's body was burned during the execution process. Marie knew of the execution and also learned of the fact that her husband had suffered terribly through the execution process.

A friend of Marie's whose name is Judy heard about how Marie was in trouble. Judy had known Marie for a long time. They were childhood friends. When Judy found out about what had happened to Marie, she knew it could not be right. Judy knew that Marie was not the type to be a troublemaker. Judy began to visit with Marie while she was in prison. Marie told Judy what had happened. Judy began to work closely with an attorney and an investigator, who ran an investigation, and was able to prove that Marie and Frank were innocent of the charges and furthermore prove that Joseph was indeed the shooter in the crime. However, it was too late. Frank had been executed by then. Eventually Marie was released. Joseph on the other hand served out his life sentence and was paroled, even though he had actually killed the patrolman that fateful night.

Today we find that Marie travels throughout the country speaking about her past. She demonstrates with her story just how corrupt our system is today. Others join her like her of who have similar stories. There are at least seventy-five people that are known to have been condemned to death who have been exonerated. With DNA procedures in place today, still more are being found on death row who are indeed innocent because of the fact that the DNA samples to do not match. DNA is virtually infallible, and the processes that are used today are very accurate.

It is important that each and every one of us understand just how real this problem is. It is also important to understand just how this process effects the law-abiding people in our society today. As long as there are errors in our system, there will always be the chance that someone else who is truly innocent will indeed be executed.

The article you just read is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. This case has been dramatized in many ways. There are books written about this case, and a movie was made about it. Is the risk of this too high? Imagine this if you were in Frank or Marie's shoes.

How would you feel?