David Alex Fleming

Dying Innocence David Alex Fleming

The witch trials of the 1600's cost many women thier lives. It was believed that these women were possessed by the devil. During their trials, witnesses would testify that they seen actions and heard sounds consistent with that of a possessed person. They would be sentenced to death and executed before the cheers of the town. For hundreds of years, eye witness testimony has been the most reliable form of proof ever offered in a court of law. After all, seeing is believing; or is it? In the 1940's, Jim Watson, then a graduate student, discovered the existence of DNA and in the 1980's, Watson worked with a group of others to identify a human genetic sequence as it relates to the genetic transfer of diseases in hopes that they could eliminate the gene that causes the transfer. Not knowing it at the time, they would later set the stage for the use of DNA in criminal cases. The use of DNA as evidence in criminal cases would forever change the way we think of eye witness testimony. Since the late 80's, early 90's, hundreds of people facing death row after eye witness testimony secured their conviction have been found to be totally innocent and released from incarceration. Before DNA was used however, many had lost their lives having been convicted of a horrific crime they didn't commit. This is the story of one of those men. Welcome to Dying Innocence!