In 1993, Levon "Bo" Jones was sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit.  Yesterday, a free man surrounded by family, he spoke about his innocence and his hope that those responsible for his wrongful conviction will be punished accordingly.

Here are the top stories in criminal justice reform, taken from the Justice Newsladder.

I know that with the Presidential primaries in full swing, with deeply contested races in both parties, that the news is dominated by this, as is our community here.  It is to be expected that other stories, and other issues, will be driven somewhat to the wayside.

But while we are attempting to choose the course that our government shall take in the future, we have a responsibility to look at the wrongs in our present and past, and attempt to address them.  Government struggles to do good when its evils are not confronted.  And the following is a story which I am willing to beg you to read.

[Promoted from the Diaries by Meteor Blades because plenty of such stories don't have such comparatively "happy endings."]

On Thursday, after spending 27 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit, Charles Chatman walked free.  The world -- or the world outside of jail, that is -- was a different place than that he had left nearly three decades ago.  After only using spoons in prison, he had to relearn how to use a knife to cut his steak.  The judge for his case even had to teach him how to use a cell phone -- a newfangled technology, for 47-year-old Chatman -- so he could call his family.  Chatman is the 15th wrongfully convicted prisoner in Dallas County who has been exonerated by DNA evidence since 2001.  

In his released statement to the Senate, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales closed by saying that he hopes that the issue of the dismissals of eight US Attorneys can be resolved quickly, saying "The sooner that all the facts are known, the sooner we can devote our exclusive attention to our important work," which he said was combating terrorism, sexual predators and illegal drugs.  

I can’t imagine any three things that we’d want this Justice Department to focus on less than those, but the key to some of the biggest problems in the United States is buried in the attitude that is revealed by that statement.