2013年高中英语教学辅助素材：For-Freed-Inmate-Painful-Memories-of-Life-on-Death-Row（文本）.docVIP

TAKOMA PARK, MD ?The execution in Texas of a man alleged to have been mentally disabled has once again brought attention to the issue of capital punishment in the United States. Nearly 1,300 people have been executed in the U.S. over the past 36 years. But during that same time period, more than 130 have been exonerated, freed because of lack of evidence, or found innocent after being re-tried. He lives an ordinary life. Shujaa Grahams favorite Sunday activity is to take his grandsons to the creek where he took his own children. Circle of violence But Graham has struggled for most of his 62 years. He spent the first eleven years of his life in Louisiana抯 cotton fields. The next seven he spent in and out of juvenile detention facilities. Then, a robbery conviction at age 18 put him in adult prison - for life. He learned to read and write in prison, and denounced his earlier criminal activities. But it was a time of vast prison overcrowding and rioting. Things went terribly wrong. They opened up a new exercise yard in Soledad state prison, he said. W.L. Nolan and two other blacks were killed - murdered?pow pow pow. And that抯 what started the movement. People looked at the situation and said We dying. They said, 慙et抯 organize ourselves and die together. Graham was later blamed for the murder of a prison guard. He tried to prove his innocence for the next eight years. But after the third trial on the charge, he was sentenced to die. Did I want to go to death row? No. But if I had to go to death row for my conviction, you damn right I抦 going. All I wanted to do was to be political and expose what was going on in prison, he said. Acquittal Finally, after a fourth trial, he was acquitted of the murder - and his robbery conviction was also overturned. Since then - for 35 years - his mission in life has been to raise awareness about wrongful conviction. What has happened to me is over with and done, he said. No one can bring those years back and no one can bring t