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After a struggle for freedom, freedom is a struggle
by Tanyanika Samuels, The Kansas City Star
appeared in The Kansas City Star, December 30, 2002, pages A1, A5
The recent startling reversal in the Central Park jogger case is hauntingly familiar for three Missourians.
Earlier this month, a judge dismissed the convictions of five New York City men in the 1989 rape and beating of a jogger. Each had served several years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
So did Ellen Reasonover, Larry Johnson and Dennis Fritz.
The three Missourians spent years in prison after being convicted
of brutal crimes. One narrowly avoided a death sentence.
Having fought for their freedom and won, they now are discovering that the return to normalcy is a struggle in itself. And they are counting on the faith that got them through prison to guide them through their newfound freedom.
For Ellen Reasonover, who was convicted of murder, the transition back into society has been difficult. The sheer elation she felt when she was released three years ago has eben weighted down by frustrations.
"For a while, I wondered if it would have been better to stay in prison than to come out here and suffer," she said.
Reasonover was a 24-year-old newlywed when an attempted good deed robbed her of the next 16 years of her life.
In January 1983, a service station attendant was shot to death in the Dellwood area of St. Louis County during an apparent robbery.
When Reasonover heard the news and realized that she had been at the service station that night, she called police with a tip about three men she had seen in the area. Her tip didn't pan out, and police grew suspicious of her. She eventually was arrested.
Prosecutors had not witnesses or physical ecidence linking Reasonover to the crime, but two jail informants testified taht she had confessed to them.
Reasonover was convicted. Because one juror refused to vote for the death penalty, she was sentenced to lifein prison.
"I was real bitter when I first went in," she said. "I cried, and I questioned God. But he chagne dmy heart and took that bitterness away."
In 1999, her prayers were answered, Reasonover's conviction was overturned after defense attorneys presented new evidence, including secretly taped recordings in which Reasonover repreatedly denied the killing. After 16 years, she was free.
Getting on with life has not been easy, however. Reasonover has had trouble finding a steady job and permanent shelter. For a while, she lived with her mother and daughter in the St. Louis aera, but she left because she felt like a burden. She went to a shelter, but that didn't last either. Last summer, she was homeless and slept in her car.
Reasonover now lives with the juror who refused to sentence her to death. But that, too, is only temporary, she said. Last August, she filed a federal lawsuit against the state, the prosecutor and the investigators for wrongful imprisonment seeking a reported $250 million. That lawsuit is pending.
She said that the money could never compensate for the years she lost in prison but that she hopes it will help take care of her family.
Reasonover wants to go back to school and work with the homeless and with babies with AIDS. But for now, she works to carve out a new life for herself and is holding on to her faith.
"I love God and I try to be a happy person," she said. "I even love the people who did me wrong. They're going to have to answer to God for what they did to me. But I'm not bitter anymore."
***
Larry Johnson still is adjusting to his new freedom. The St. Louis man was released in July after serving 18 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.
The victim had picked Johnson out of a lineup. At his trial, Johnson's attorneys were barred from investigating DNA evidence from the assault. In August 1984, Johnson was sentenced to lifein prison plus 30 years.
"I just tried to cope with it each and every day," he said. "I had no doubt I was innocent. I just needed the right people to say it."
Through the years, appeal after appeal failed. In 1995, Johnson contacted the Innocence Project -- a team of law students and attorneys -- to help get DNA testing.
In February 2001, after Missouri adopted a law allowing for post-conviction DNA testing, the Innocence Project filed a motion on Johnson's behalf.
In July, tests showed that Johnson was not the rapist, and he walked out of prison.
With no place of his own, Johnson spent the past six months bouncing between homes of relatives and sleeping on couches. He managed to get a job at a St. Louis area hotel but was laid off recently.
"It has been hard to be out here," he said. "I get that feeling of bitterness sometimes becasue things are just not going planned. ...I try not to bog my mind up with the frustrations. If you dwell on that, you'll lose your mind."
Most people have been supportive of Johnson's circumstances, but he has encountered some negative sentiments.
"Sometimes, it seems like when I'm thinking I'm about to make some progress, someone comes along to knock you down," he said.
Still, Johnson is determined to build a future for himself step by step. He is expecting compenstation from teh state for his time in prison, but he is not waiting on money to make his move.
Johnson has pooled his savings and donations from the community to get an apartment, which he plans to move into next month. He anticipates being back to work soon.
Johnson, who turned 49 on Christmas, is focusing on getting the simple pleasures in life -- a home, a wife, children. Everything else, he said, will fall into place.
"I'm a survivor. I know that I'll make it," he said. "I have a lot of faith...."
***
Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson were convicted in 1988 in Oklahoma for sexually assaulting a young waitress.
At trial, a fellow inmate said Fritz had confessed to him. Hair found at the scene supposedly matched the of Fritz and Williamson. Fritz received a life sentence. Williamson was sentenced to death.
Fritz said he struggled to cope with life in prison.
"Emotionally, I tried to detach myself as much as possible. It was like I was looking in from the outside," he said. "I was an alien there. I know I didn't belong."
Fritz spent his days workingo n his case. He eventually contacted the Innocence Project.
Months of legal wrangling eventually yileded DNA testing that proved Fritz and Williamson were innocent. It turned out that the inmate who has snitched on Fritz was the one who committed the crime.
In April 1999, after 12 years in prison, both men were freed,
Fritz was relieved to see friends and loved ones again, but the world had changed. Hotels used credit card-like gadgets instead of keys. The Internet was new and overwhelming. Even pumping gas was confusing.
Fritz had to adjust emotionally, as well.
"I had built up the emotional barrier in my mind. Now each and every one of those bricks had to be taken down one by one," he said. "For the longest time, I was emotionally restricting myself as if i was still in the penitentiary."
Fritz was overly cautious and a little paranoid, he said. Whenever he heard a car door slam, he had flashbacks of the SWAT team that descended on his Kansas City home to arrest him years ago.
Fritz, now 53, is still easing his way back into the mainstream. He lives with his mother in Kansas City, where he tends his vegetable garden.
Fritz was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and lives off disability payments. He volunteers to help other inmates that he beileves are falsely imprisoned. For the past two years, Fritz has championed the case of Ken Haddock, who was sentenced to life in 1993 for killing his wife.
Fritz hopes to do more advocacy work in the future. In many ways, it is therapeutic and has become his calling. Prison changed his way of thinking and gave him a new perspective on life.
"I will never take anything for granted again," Fritz said. "Being in the penitentiary changed me. Now I want to live every second as fully as I can."
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