He was 18 years old when they sent him to death row. 😶 Rickey Jackson was arrested in 1975 in Cleveland, Ohio, accused of killing a salesman during a robbery. The only witness: a 12-year-old boy who said he saw him shoot.
The problem — that boy was on a school bus several blocks away when the crime happened. No physical evidence linked him to the case. Even so, he was convicted. He spent 39 years behind bars. When he was finally released in 2014, it was the longest wrongful imprisonment case in U.S. history.
Some say the system simply failed. Others point to something darker: that it was easy to convict a young Black man without evidence. What punishment does a system deserve when it steals 39 years of life from someone innocent? 🤔
