SAUL GONZALEZ: There are more than two million people serving hard time in America's state and federal prisons. However, some of the incarcerated -- how many no one really knows for sure -- shouldn't be behind bars. They are innocent people wrongfully convicted and sent to prison for crimes they did not commit.
DAVID POPE: It was like a bad story from the "Twilight Zone." The man wakes up in jail, and he keeps waking up and he can't believe it's really happening.
GONZALEZ: When he was 24 years old, David Pope was sentenced by a Texas court to 45 years in prison for breaking into an apartment and raping a woman. Years later DNA testing proved that Pope was not the attacker. He was finally released in 2001. But by that time Pope had already served 15 years behind bars.
Mr. POPE: I still kind of struggle with things -- questions, you know, questions. Why did I have to stay in there so long, right? You know, there is a part of me that there is going to be this sadness, right, because that is just part of it. It's like grieving for --
GONZALEZ: Grieving over this hole in your life?
Mr. POPE: This loss of years.
GONZALEZ: Pope represents a small but growing number of the wrongfully incarcerated in this country who have had their convictions overturned and then been released. These innocent men and women were convicted and sent to prison for a variety of reasons such as incorrect eyewitness identifications, police and prosecutorial misconduct, and coerced confessions. However, after surviving prison and proving their innocence, exonerated individuals often face a multitude of new challenges once they're released.
LOLA VOLLEN (Founder and Executive Director, Life After Exoneration Program, LAEP): They come out like newborns with nothing and stripped of their identity and their dignity. And then --
GONZALEZ: And left to fend for themselves?
Ms. VOLLEN: Yes, and what they have to fend against is ongoing injustices.
GONZALEZ: Lola Vollen is the founder and executive director of the Berkeley, California-based Life After Exoneration Program, called LAEP by its members.
VOLLEN: It's an effort to help those whose lives have been virtually destroyed by the criminal justice system move forward in a meaningful and satisfying way, to help them heal and move forward.
GONZALEZ: Run on a shoestring budget, LAEP organizes meetings of the exonerated, where men like Herman Atkins can discuss their wrongful conviction experiences.
HERMAN ATKINS (speaking at LAEP meeting): I was tried and found guilty for two counts of rape. I was exonerated from all charges after serving 12 years of a 47-year prison sentence.
GONZALEZ: LAEP also tries to connect the wrongfully convicted with psychological counseling, job training programs, housing, and pro-bono legal assistance.
HEATHER WEIGAND (speaking at LAEP meeting): The important factor is that you guys stay in touch with each other, that you guys build a bond a fellowship.
GONZALEZ : Many of those exonerated complain that once released from prison they often receive no official apologies and compensation. Their criminal records aren't expunged, and they have nowhere to turn to for help as they try to rebuild their lives.
Mr. ATKINS (speaking at LAEP meeting): All of a sudden one day you're free, and you are told to go back into society and function the best way that you can. Well, that best way I can is not good enough because I now have a criminal history that I didn't have before. I don't have an education needed to apply for a job that's worthwhile having. I don't have the funds needed to pay for basic necessities such as clothing, housing, food, transportation.
Mr. POPE (speaking at LAEP meeting): You know, I have such post-traumatic issues. It is really hard for me to resocialize and integrate in "normal society."
GONZALEZ: Even though his innocence was proven, David Pope says he got no special treatment when he was released from a Texas prison.
Mr. POPE: They let me out at night, and there was no bus because I couldn't go anywhere at night. So I actually came back in and spent the night in the prison so that my father could come pick me up the next morning.
GONZALEZ: And there was nothing done for you? No ride given? No money in your wallet? No change of clothes?
Mr. POPE: The change of clothes I got.
GONZALEZ: The change of clothes you got?
Mr. POPE: Because they won't let you out there naked, and they also won't let you walk out of there with prison clothes on, because that's illegal.
GONZALEZ: How much would Vollen and other activists like to see the wrongfully convicted rewarded upon their release?
Mr. HALL: You take away my life for 19 years. I could have been a judge. I could have been an attorney. I could have been a doctor. I could have been anything. I could've had kids. That was taken away from me. I could've had, you know, a family.
Prof. LONGERAN: I do believe we have a good system. I believe that we have the presumption of innocence. We have a court system with competent defense attorneys fighting for people's rights. We have juries generally, usually, trying to do the right thing. And I think that we a damn good system in place where we do the best that we can to find the actually guilty parties. It is just reality that mistakes are going to be made. But from what I see in 20 years, those are rare.
