What happens when justice is served to the wrong person? How long does it take to catch the mistake and reverse it?

On Monday, April 23 at 2 p.m. in the Student Union Theater, three wrongfully convicted men got the chance to tell their story.

The Southeastern Criminal Justice Association and the department of Sociology and Criminal Justice sponsored this lecture, entitled “Voices of Innocence.”

The lecture began with a brief introduction from Tara Mann from the Sociology and criminal justice department telling the audience about Voices of Innocence.

“‘Voices of Innocence’ is an Advocacy organization,” said Mann.  “It is comprised of people who served time for crimes they did not commit.”

Voices of Innocence works to expose and prevent the wrongful incarceration of the innocent.

All three of the men are doing their best to help others by working with a project called “Resurrection after Exoneration” (RAE).

RAE was founded in 2006 by John Thompson with assistance from the Innocence Project of New Orleans (IPNO), a nonprofit group that works to free people who have been wrongfully imprisoned.

The three speakers were Michael Graham, Derrick Jameson and Dan Bright. These men were all wrongfully imprisoned for years before being exonerated and released from death row.

Each of the men admitted to breaking various laws, but none of them committed the murders they were charged with.

“While I was waiting in my cell, I kept thinking that they would say they made a mistake in a few days,” said Graham.

Graham’s sentencing was done in two and a half days and he was sentenced to death by a million volts of electricity.

While Bright was talking, he told the audience of how prison had changed him.

“Prison has a way of killing your emotions,” said Bright. “You have to become a monster to survive around monsters. I don’t know when to laugh, when to cry or when to play around anymore.”

Bright also told the audience of how he had been set up, not only by the local police department, but also by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Derrick Jameson was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon and was later wrongfully convicted of killing a business owner.

“I had five witnesses and alibis so no one could say I was there,” said Jameson.

Towards the end of the lecture, all three of the speakers talked about the various ways that they had been exonerated, but none of them had even received an apology.

For more information on the “Voices of Innocence” or RAE, you can visit the website at  r-a-e.org.