By Angela Hatton
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-885204.mp3
Louisville, KY – On October 13, 2009, a Jefferson County judge exonerated Louisville man Edwin Chandler. He was arrested in 1993 and falsely accused of robbery and murder. It wasn't until after he had been released on parole that Chandler won his exoneration. Chandler is one of nine innocent people exonerated in Kentucky since 2000. But once they're out, many exonerees face challenges adjusting back to society.
The facts in the case are these: In 1993, a man entered a convenience store in Louisville, Kentucky, and brought a beer to the counter, ostensibly for purchase. He then shot and killed the clerk, and stole money from the cash till. Soon after, a local officer arrested Chandler."Somehow or another he just placed me, because my because I lived out that way. He just placed me, y'know, as being the guy," he said.
Chandler may have been a suspect because he had recently been released from a short stint in jail. He had written a bad check. However, in a case Louisville police now admit was mishandled, physical evidence, including a fingerprint on the beer bottle that didn't match Chandler, was ignored. Chandler explained, "Being in prison is it was very trying for me, very, very trying. Because I knew that I hadn't done nothing, but I'm in this awful place with all these awful people."
About 18 months before he was set to go on parole, Chandler saw a flyer that was being circulated in his facility for the Kentucky Innocence Project, a division of the state Department of Public Advocacy. Then he got an application. "Actually," he said, "I sat and looked at it for a couple of days and y'know, just thinking about it and I was like, this is I'm going to go off what it says on the packet; it says Kentucky Innocence Project,' so I'm going to fill it out and see."
The Kentucky Innocence Project was established in 2000 to help those who may have been wrongfully imprisoned. Executive Director Marguerite Thomas says in that time they have received 1,100 applications. Thomas said it takes years for a case like this to go through the justice system. For example, Chandler fought his conviction in court for nine years.
Thomas said, "We've been met with roadblocks, stonewalling, and legal challenges all along the way. It seems that we as a culture are very resistant to believing that we could really, truly convict somebody wrongfully."
Thomas said once a person is cleared they are no longer the state's responsibility. That can be a problem, particularly for someone who has been put away for a decade or more.
She recounted the first exoneration they had: "the state didn't give our person a dime they don't give you any money to start your life. And he didn't even have the money to go get his driver's license. And without his driver's license he couldn't apply for a job and without a jo y'know, it's like it was just a vicious cycle."
National statistics show many exonerees can't make the transition.
"Y'know, people fail," Thomas said, "They either resort to drug use or alcohol use, or . . . or it's like having PTSD coming back from the war."
Exoneree Edwin Chandler is doing better than some. He has a family and a steady job. But there's still a gap in his life left from his time in prison. Thomas said one of Kentucky's exonerees filed suit against the state for wrongful conviction and settled out of court for six million dollars. Chandler has considered filing a lawsuit too. A bill in the General Assembly would support exonerees who seek state compensation, but the measure has languished in committee for the past several sessions.
In the best case scenario, the justice system would never fail. Marguerite Thomas said part of the problem is a lack of oversight in evidence collection. She explained, "Yes there are broad-based parameters and there might be office policies of each police force, but there's no oversight of the enforcement of those policies and there's-there are, I can guarantee you, no detailed policies."
Kentucky State Police spokesman Lieutenant David Jude said the state police force puts their recruits through several weeks of investigation training. Jude said the KSP also compiles an Evidence Collection Handbook that's standard through all the posts. Smaller police agencies may use and get training on the handbook, but Jude said they're not required to use it.
"The handbook has been designed not as a law that's to be enforced, but rather as a guideline to hopefully have consistencies with evidence collection to better prepare the evidence to be packaged and sent to the lab," he explained.
Jude said officers receive updated training regularly. He acknowledges mistakes happen, and says even though the police agency does everything it can to be prepared, there's always the "human element." He said, "For us, it goes right back to cadet training and instilling into the personnel on their first day that evidence collection is just not something you see on TV, and crime is not something that you solve within an hour. That evidence collection is a critical part of our jobs, whether you're working a homicide case or you're just doing a DUI arrest."
Although Edwin Chandler's been exonerated, the conviction remains on his record. But he has made peace with it. He says for a while he was angry. Now, he sees that time as just a phase in his life. "I've taken a lot of steps to make sure that my life is not filled with bitterness and hatred and all of that," he noted, "Because it's not going to do anything but tear me down as an individual and make me a weaker person."
These days, Chandler prefers to look forward rather than back. He has two children, and is expecting his third in June.