conviction

tonight we watched 'conviction,' based on the extraordinary true story of betty anne waters, who devoted 18 years of her life to free her brother from prison.  her brother kenneth was convicted of robbing and murdering his next-door neighbor in 1983 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. 

never doubting his innocence, betty anne put herself through law school, first earning her GED(!), bachelors, masters, and finally a graduate degree in law.  she did this all as a single mother of 2 boys and working part-time.  once she passed her bar exam, she became her brother's attorney, hoping to obtain assistance from barry scheck, the founder of the innocence project, an organization focused on overturning wrongful convictions using DNA evidence. 

but first, she needed the evidence.  being a 16-year-old case at the time, she was told the evidence had been destroyed according to state law, but that didn't stop her (or her attorney friend abra) from searching until it was found.  with the evidence and help of barry, they were able to prove from DNA testing (which was not around at the time of kenneth's conviction), that he was, in fact, innocent.  yet the story did not end there. 

although kenneth had been proven innocent, he was not released because it was not enough to show that he had not been an accomplice in the murder.  again, in true erin-brockovich fashion, betty anne did not give up.  she went after those who had testified against her brother, convincing one of them to come forward with the truth, which was that she had been coerced by police to claim kenneth had committed the murder.  with this, he was released from prison in 2001.

betty anne did not continue to practice law after her brother's exoneration, since she became an attorney with a sole purpose in mind: to free her brother.

after the movie, i went online to read more about the case and discovered that kenneth died only 6 months after his release, after a freak fall and fatal head injury.  i wondered how that must have felt for his sister, who dedicated nearly 2 decades of her life to essentially save him.  she had sacrificed her marriage, time with her children, and so much more purely out of love for her brother and unwavering belief in his innocence.  it was incredibly inspiring.

what lengths would you go to in the name of love and justice?