After more than three decades in prison, a man in Florida was set free Thursday after a DNA test showed he did not kidnap and rape a 9-year-old boy in 1974. James Bain, 54, was 19 when he was convicted on charges of kidnapping, burglary and strong-arm rape. Now he will be allowed to go home for the first time in 35 years.
"Mr. Bain, you are a free man," the judge said in a Bartow, Florida, courtroom. Bain was serving a life sentence.
Of the 245 people in the United States who have been exonerated by DNA testing, none has spent more time behind bars than Bain, according to the Innocence Project, a national organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing.
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James Bain's patience and perseverance should serve as an inspiration to us all. This man has been wrongfully imprisoned for 35 years and he doesn't seem to have a bitter bone in his body. I get annoyed when The Machine has me on hold for longer than 15 minutes. I still hold grudges against people who wronged me when I was a youth. I'm not proud of the latter. I know I need to move on, but somethings are really hard to forgive.
Mr. Bain said that his Faith in the Lord comforted him throughout his incarceration. I know that organized religion can be a horrible thing when used by the wrong people. Unfortunately, religion and money are often used to negatively influence the poor and the naive. Be that as it may, religion has the power to help people through trying times. Mr. Bain could have easily flipped out on everybody he encountered in prison. A sentence like his could make someone turn to drugs in an attempt to escape reality. Thankfully, Mr. Bain gave his energy to the Lord and things eventually worked out for him. Let's hope he gets a huge check from the Sun Life State.
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