Many factors play a role in the epidemic of wrongful convictions now sweeping across our country but the most common, by far, is mistaken I.D. . For what ever reason, they simply got the wrong person and convicted him. According to the book, "Actual Innocence", by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, mistaken identification is the cause in about 85 percent of wrongful convictions. Eye witnesses are frequently mistaken and, when police and prosecutors take eye witness testimony and, with no other evidence to corroborate it, convict a person and take years of his life from him -- great injustices occur.
Benjamin Redwine's picture was selected from a group by a woman who had reported an armed robbery at her store. She claimed that a man entered the store with a twenty guage shotgun and took the cash drawer; he then left with the cash drawer in one hand and the shotgun in the other. No one saw him enter or leave and no other evidence was ever found.
Benjamin was offered a plea agreement under which he would have received a term of six years in the penitentiary. He declined, believng that he would be exonerated at trial and determined not to plead guilty to a crime he had not committed.
He was convicted and given a sentence of Life. He has been there for over 10 years now and still maintains that he is innocent.
